India won the T20 series 2-1 against england
India 202-6 (Raina 63, Dhoni 56)beat
England 127 (Root 42, Chahal 6-25, Bumrah 3-14) by 75 runs
Yuzvendra Chahal returned the stunning figures of 6 for 25 in four overs – the best by an Indian bowler in T20I history, and the third best overall – as England’s batsmen capitulated in woeful appearance at the end of a lengthy and fruitless tour. In a uncommon finale, India claimed eight wickets for eight runs in 19 balls to derail what had, up to the start of the 14th over, been a spirited pursuit of 203 in the series decider.
Instead, India wrapped up a clean of all three formats – following their 4-0 Test series win before Christmas and their high-scoring 2-1 win in the ODIs – to send Eoin Morgan’s men home empty-handed. And, as had been the case in each of the other two series, it was England’s fallibility to spin that proved their undoing, with Chahal’s flight and change proving illegible to a succession of weary England batsman for whom the flight back to England now cannot come soon enough.
Responding to India’s impressive 202 for 6 – which had been built on half-centuries from Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni (singularly his first in 76 T20Is spanning more than a decade) – Jason Roy once again set the tempo for England’s chase, and in a misleadingly eye-popping appearance. With Chahal taking the globe for the second over of the innings, Roy flipped his stance to the very first surrender and battered a birch hit into the stands for six. The more apt moment of that same over, however, would prove to be the dismissal of Roy’s partner Sam Billings for a first-globe duck – caught in the gulch by Raina as he inside-edged a drive onto his boot. Billings would turn out to be the first of five ducks in England’s innings, and none of them lasted more than two deliveries.
Root, who had been in befitting form without quite hitting the sugary mark in the first two matches, appeared at first to have benefited from an timely ushering in to the chase – a first-globe mix-up with Roy notwithstanding. After all, his cool head had guided England to their thrilling pursuit of 230 against Southern Africa in the World T20 last year.
However, where he hadn’t once missed a beat against Southern Africa’s pace-dominant make aggression on on that occurrence, this duration he couldn’t help but telegraph his unease as Chahal’s comrade leggie, Amit Mishra, twirled his way through a little and constrictive four-over spell that set the stage for the butchery to come. His second globe did for Roy – who top-edged a slog-clean to Dhoni for 32 – and his last over should have done for Root as well, only for Yuvraj Singh to globule a fortuity at backward point as the debutant, Rishabh Pant, charged over-eagerly into his peripheral seeing.
Morgan did his last to support England’s tempo, sculpture Mishra for back-to-back fours through point before turning up the caloric in Raina’s lone over of offspin – three sixes in successive lawful deliveries brought the asking standard back within two a globe. But, with the onus on more confine-clearing, Morgan chanced his arm once too often against Chahal’s googly, and was caught in the of great depth for 40 from 21.
It was the cut that turned the sport, and broke England’s reduce for the last duration in an arduous campaign. One globe later, Chahal fizzed in a quicker surrender to pin Root lbw for 42, and in the very next over, Jasprit Bumrah’s reintroduction accounted once again for the perilous Jos Buttler, who climbed into a second-globe shake to be caught by Kohli at mid-on for a duck.
Three wickets for no runs had left England’s morale in freefall, and worse was soon to follow. Moeen Ali galloped down the track to toe-end a Chahal googly to Virat Kohli at lengthy-off, and though Ben Stokes picked off a sparse drive for four, he was brilliantly caught in the same over as Raina contorted himself at of great depth midwicket to keep his balance as he intercepted a slog to the rope.
Chris Jordan then ran past a Chahal legbreak to be stumped for a second-globe duck and complete only the third six-wicket haul in T20 history, whereupon it was back to Bumrah to apply the mercy killing. Liam Plunkett missed a swape across the extended mark to be bowled first globe before, fittingly, it was the chief Kohli who wrapped up the winter with a fizzing catch in front of his external part at glide as Mills gave himself room but found only a not thin edge.
Having come within a couple of boundaries of winning the series in Nagpur, England ended up looking miles adrift of their first limited-overs conquest in India since 1984-85. But the denouement wasn’t a genuine exhibition of the debate that had been unfolding up to that point, with India’s veteran middle-regularity constrained to reprise some of their very finest form to assured their hefty complete.
Despite the obvious advantage of chasing in T20 cricket, Morgan’s conclusion to bowl first wasn’t exactly a frustration to a seething Chinnaswamy crowd, who had instead settled back in the expectation of watching their limited hero, Kohli, replicate his derring-do for Imperial Challengers Bangalore. They weren’t, however, in readiness for what followed, as Kohli – eager to get a move on – called for an unachievable leg bye against Chris Jordan and was left flailing his dissatisfaction as his partner, KL Rahul, rightly declined the opportunity as Jordan swooped to fling off the bails in his followthrough.
Raina made it his duty to revive the crowd’s morale after that shock to the a whole. A sliced drive to cover off Plunkett eventually did for him in the 14th over, but with five very high sixes in his 63 from 47 balls, he had set the stage for a finishing cameo from Yuvraj, a man well used to bringing out his lengthy handle in T20s against England.
Lurking of great depth in his crease to negate Chris Jordan’s search for the fuller length, Yuvraj sprang through his stance to crash six, six, four, six in successive deliveries – none of them an especially poor surrender. It took an indecent piece of trickery to prise him from the crease, as Tymal Mills returned for his last over, and proximately unleashed an illegible slower globe. Setting himself for an 150kph exocet, Yuvraj instead fenced a looping edge to the keeper to depart for 27 from 10.
Dhoni, by this stage, had chalked off an improbably delayed milestone by reaching his virgin T20 fifty from 32 balls with four fours and two sixes. After his departure in the last over, Hardik Pandya applied the interpretation execute with a smoked six through the hands of Roy at lengthy-on, while Pant had a brief opportunity to acquaint himself to international cricket by pulling second globe for four en route to 6 not out from three balls. It may have been a limit grant or bestowment of a share, but only three of England’s batsman managed to outvie him. It was that sort of a day, to crown that sort of a tour.