Despite losing to England by 17 runs in the 3rd and final India vs England T20 international on Sunday at Trent Bridge in Nottingham, India won the series 2-1. India could only score 198 for 9 in the 3rd match when pursuing a lofty 216 total, meaning Suryakumar Yadav’s century(117 off 55 balls) was in vain.
After losing the first two T20 internationals, England was not ready to accept a complete defeat over India. With Reece Topley collecting three wickets, the hosts successfully batted down a target of 216 runs. With his sensational bowling on a belter of a pitch, Topley won the player of the match award. David Willey and Chris Jordan both had two wickets each while being in excellent form. Moeen Ali and Richard Gleeson each claimed one wicket.
England had chosen to bat after winning the toss. Before Liam Livingstone’s undefeated performance of 42 propelled England to a total of 216 for 7 against India, Dawid Malan had scored a stunning 77. Despite losing wickets frequently, England was still able to score boundaries often, especially given the venue’s narrow boundaries. The pivotal 84-run partnership between Malan and Livingstone allowed England to exceed the 200-run target.
India, which was attempting to chase down a total of 216, was in trouble at 31 for three before Suryakumar Yadav and Shreyas Iyer put together 119 runs for the fourth wicket to keep the game on their side. Yadav persisted with his assault, dismissing Iyer and Dinesh Karthik in quick succession to move India closer to the goal. However, his dismissal in the succeeding over gave England the advantage once more. Then, as England held on for a consoling victory, Chris Jordan took two wickets in the final over. Ravi Bishnoi and Harshal Patel remain the pick of the bowlers for India with 2 wickets each.
The England bowlers bowled well to every batter of India apart from Suryakumar Yadav. They really struggled to make him out of the frame but he took advantage of that. Yadav almost pulled off the impossible. He walked out when India where 2/13. Rohit Sharma also fell soon after Yadav came out. Iyer is the only one who gave good support to him. With his magical strokeplay, Yadav earned his maiden international century and career-best score in T20I with 14 fours and 6 sixes. After Iyer, Karthik(6), and Jadeja(7), both fell LBW in quick time.
Having just witnessed one of the finest centuries in a T20I, Yadav received a thunderous round of applause from the crowd and the players. England captain Jos Butler and other players like Topley mentioned Yadav’s innings as incredible.
Both the captains, Jos Butler and Rohit Sharma failed to create an impact on the team with their performance, even though the expectations were high. Rohit Sharma has scored only 11 runs off 12 balls while Butler scored 18 runs off 9 balls. The former captain Virat Kohli was also under pressure to make a remark in the game as his place in the T20 was questioned by experts with his inefficient performance. Former captain Kapil Dev has spoken about Kohli’s prolonged lean patch after he has failed to make an impact in the game with only scoring 11 runs. But Rohit Sharma defended Kohli saying that the star player’s quality is beyond doubt and the team will continue to back him.
India and England are ready to pull off the ODI series after the successful completion of the T20I series. The first match of the three-match series starts on 12th July, Tuesday at Kennington Oval in London. The series will be interesting considering the last encounters between the teams.
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