3rd T20I Report: India claims a monumental victory

On a sunny afternoon in Bristol, with an early start for the match at 2 pm, India won an important toss in the series decider and chose to bowl. They made some interesting changes by bringing in Siddarth Kaul in place of an unfit Bhuvneshwar Kumar and debutant Deepak Chahar for Kuldeep Yadav. This raised a few eyebrows considering Kuldeep’s form of late, but a possible explanation could be to preserve the mystery factor of his bowling. England made a change, bringing in all-rounder Ben Stokes in place of batsman Joe Root who had not played to his high standards in the first two matches.

The English openers gave them a rapid start

As has been the case with most of England’s matches of late, their openers Jos Buttler and Jason Roy kept the scoreboard ticking rapidly during the powerplay. Buttler was the aggressor at the start, as he targeted Chahar and Umesh Yadav in the first three overs before Roy joined in the party. With only 2 players out in the first 6 overs they had to capitalise, and considering that the County Ground in Bristol has short boundaries straight (58 – 59 metres) and square (62m), with the kind of form the aggressive English openers were in, it resulted in England ending the powerplay with 73/0 – their second-best start ever.

Hardik Pandya was introduced into the attack early in the 6th over by Indian captain Virat Kohli in an attempt to curb the run flow, but it proved to be futile as 22 runs came off his first over. Legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal, who had a good outing in the 2nd T20I, began bowling right after the powerplay and ended up as the most economical of the Indian bowlers, going for only 30 in his four.

The Indians dropped a couple of tough but important chances of Roy and Buttler in the first 7 overs, with Chahar dropping Roy at the boundary that went for a 6, and Kaul missing a chance diving forwards after making good ground.

Kaul soon made up for his drop, however, clattering the stumps of Buttler with a “You miss, I hit” type delivery. Perhaps inspired by Kaul’s redemption, Chahar soon picked up the wicket of Roy who didn’t get as much bat on the ball as he would have liked on an attempted late cut that he feathered to Dhoni instead. With both openers gone within the 10th over after a strong opening stand that threatened to take the game away from India, the Indian comeback began.

Dhoni completes the catch of Morgan

A rebuilding partnership between Morgan and Hales of 31 that took 25 deliveries slowed down the flow of runs, as Pandya and Chahal bowled tight lines and did not give much away that the English batsmen could target. Bairstow and Stokes were the new batsmen at the crease and they managed to get a few away, especially with Bairstow whose 25 (14) cameo powered England towards a respectable total of 199. After their rapid start, however, England would have been disappointed that they did not end up with a score closer to 220 – 230 and these 20 odd runs proved to be the difference in the end.

India got off to a quick start, which they usually lack in limited overs cricket, but starting off the chase at 10 RPO required, they had to keep the scoreboard ticking. Both openers were playing with aggressive intent, however, Dhawan fell in the first ball of the 3rd over courtesy of Jake Ball taking a wonderful catch diving to his left.

Dhawan fell to a great catch by Ball (background)

The in-form KL Rahul joined Rohit Sharma at the crease and India showed no signs of slowing down as both batsmen struck boundaries regularly. Rahul’s confidence was clearly showing as he creamed the first delivery he faced off David Willey for a straight drive that found the boundary ropes. Rahul lofted one into the midwicket area for what looked like a sure boundary but it settled in the hands of Chris Jordan diving full length to his right after sprinting from long on.

With the fall of Rahul’s wicket came Kohli, one of the masters of chasing in limited overs cricket. Kohli and Rohit Sharma were involved in an 89 run partnership that took only 57 balls, and it was almost risk-free cricket. Every over, they’d look to score a boundary or hit a six off a bad ball and rotate the strike for the rest of the deliveries and this approach put the game firmly in India’s favor.

Another piece of fielding brilliance from Chris Jordan saw the end of Virat Kohli, as he hung on to a return catch that Kohli smashed back at him, leaving him very little reaction time to get his hands in the path of the ball that was traveling rather quickly. England might have thought that they were back in the game, but it was not to be.

Hardik Pandya, who had already played a great hand with the ball picking up 4 wickets, was promoted ahead of established finishers Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni, to provide him a cushion that would allow him to play with freedom without fear of what happens if he lost his wicket as these batsmen were yet to come. He saw off his first delivery and then launched a couple into the stands but the most remarkable part of the innings was the deft touches he used to guide the wide yorkers past backward point to pick up 4 runs for India.

Rohit Sharma brought up his 3rd T20I century

Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma continued on his classy innings and notched up his 3rd T20I century off just 56 deliveries that anchored the Indian innings and provided the much-needed firepower to chase down 199 with 8 balls and 7 wickets to spare. It was truly a dominant performance by the Indian team to clinch the T20I series title.

These were promising signs for India going ahead as they were able to win against one of the strongest limited over outfits overseas, without playing 3 of their bowling mainstays – Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

MS Dhoni was also excellent behind the stumps, taking a record 5 catches in addition to effecting a run out of Chris Jordan off the last ball of the English innings that highlighted his match awareness as he kept with only one gloved hand. Rohit Sharma’s hundred saw him join Colin Munro with 3 T20I hundreds – the equal most.