India v England, 3rd T20I - 5 Talking Points

One last time on a marathon tour to India, England locked horns with the hosts in the final T20 at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. The 3-match series was set up beautifully with a win each for both sides and the decider was expected to be a cracker on the high-scoring ground of the Garden city. It was an opportunity for the visitors to end the trip on a happy note whereas the Indians were in the hunt for a perfect three by winning in all the formats.

Just like the previous two games, England won the toss and asked India to bat first on a belter of a pitch. The start of the innings wasn’t good as Kohli departed in only the second over but a fifty partnership between KL Rahul and Suresh Raina resurrected the innings with the later getting to a half-century. It was followed by a wonderful knock from MS Dhoni and a blistering cameo from Yuvraj Singh that led India to a huge score of 202/6 at the end of 20 overs.

The English chase was going well when Root and Morgan were in the middle and the match was shaping up for another close finish. But Yuzvendra Chahal produced an unbelievable spell of leg-break bowling and picked up as many as 6 wickets. Bumrah got 3 and Mishra got one wicket as England lost the last 8 wickets for just 8 runs and what looked like a close chase ended up in a horror for the visitors. India won the game by a massive margin of 5 runs and won the series by 2-1.

Here are the 5 major talking points from the game as India completed a perfect three:

Also check out- Twitter Reactions: Clinical India steamroll England riding on Chahal’s heroics to seal series

1. Raina showed the way

The left-hander was under pressure following a series of low scores and was in a desperate situation to justify his selection in the squad. He answered all the criticism with a superbly constructed half-century. He scored 63 runs off just 45 balls striking 5 sixes and 2 fours. After the early departure of the skipper, England were on the charge trying to put the batsmen under pressure.

Raina did a great job in raising the tempo of the scoring-rate by going after the bowling. It was the typical Raina’s innings that we were used to seeing in the past with lovely bat swings. He was ably supported by KL Rahul at the other end as the duo constructed a partnership of 61 runs for the second wicket. He then had another fifty runs stand, this time with Dhoni for the 3rd wicket. When he was dismissed in the 14th over at the score of 120, the platform was set for a big score.

2. Yuvraj’s cameo

The veteran has such a stature amongst the Indian fans that whatever he does these days comes to the prime notice. The 35-year-old showed glimpses of the Yuvi from the past as he played a breathtaking cameo of 27 runs off 10 balls. He walked in at number 5 when Dhoni was flourishing at the other end and the need of the hour would have been to provide Dhoni the strike as much as possible.

But he had other ideas and Chris Jordan was the victim of his blitz. In the 18th over, he smacked the bowler for 3 sixes and a four off 4 consecutive deliveries. The three sixes were all over the long-on, the preferred area of his to collect maximums. A total of 24 runs were collected off the over that gave India the kick during the slog overs that enabled them to edge past 200.

3. Dhoni’s maiden fifty

It is hard to believe that the master of T20 cricket Dhoni didn’t have a single T20I half-century until this game, batting late in the order contributed to the stat. He scored his maiden fifty in his 66th T20I innings which is the highest number of innings taken by any player to score the first fifty. It was the “better late than never” moment for him and it came just at the right time for India.

He came in at number 4 ahead of Yuvraj, something that reminded of the 2011 ODI World Cup final. He scored 56 runs off 36 balls that included 5 fours and 2 sixes and the way he paced his innings was excellent. Earlier with Raina, he played the second fiddle and after his dismissal went ahead to up the ante. He went back in the last over of the innings when the team was within touching distance of 200.

4. Root-Morgan gave hopes

The English chase was off to a poor start after the loss of Sam Billings in the second over. Jason Roy batted well for a while but got out after scoring 32 in the 7th over. The captain Eoin Morgan then joined Joe Root in the middle and the duo gave India a scare with a nicely timed stand. Root looked fluent from the outset and was timing the ball well and scored 42 runs off 37 balls.

Morgan on the other had been in an outstanding form since the time he landed in India and played another good inning in this game. He scored 40 runs off 21 balls and drifted the game slightly in favor of his side when he struck 3 consecutive sixes off Suresh Raina’s over. It was a partnership of 64 runs that kept the game in balance and England could well have gone on to achieve the target had the batsmen that followed continued from the momentum

5. Night of the leg-spinners

The youngster Yuzvendra Chahal had the time of his life as he returned with the best ever figures by an Indian and third best overall in the T20Is. He took 6 wickets for 25 runs and inflicted an improbable collapse of the England batting. The fact that there was due on the ground makes the effort even more special as it gets difficult for a spinner to grip the wet ball. He was brilliant with his variations with spin as well as lengths that made the batsmen surrender against him.

He picked up the wicket of Sam Billings in his first over and came back to bag the dangerous looking combination of Root and Morgan. Then, Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali and Chris Jordan all were removed in his last over that diminished all the hopes of an England victory. The other leg-spinner Amit Mishra also played a crucial role with figures of 23/1 in 4 overs and grabbed the important scalp of Jason Roy.