England beat India to keep T20 series alive

Third T20, Rajkot

England 171-9 (20 overs): Duckett 51 (28), Chakravarthy 5-24

India 145-9 (20 overs): Pandya 40 (35), Overton 3-24

England win by 26 runs, India lead five-match series 2-1

India defeated England by 26 runs in Rajkot to maintain the T20 series’ viability.

Having lost the opening two matches of the five-match series, England had to win the third T20 to avoid defeat at the earliest opportunity.

Ben Duckett struck a 28-ball 51 and Liam Livingstone hit fives sixes in his 43 from 21 as England made what appeared to be a below-par 171-9 on a decent surface.

However, India’s bowling line-up was outstanding, and the home team’s 145-9 resulted in a disappointing performance.

With a starting position of 83-1 in the ninth over, Duckett helped the visitors succeed.

However, when Buttler was found to be 24 behind in the next over, Duckett holed out midwicket off the bowling of Axar Patel, the innings turned in India’s favor.

Buttler was the first victim of Varun Chakravarthy, with the leg-spinner bowling superbly to take 5-24 as England lost 8-60.

India lost wickets steadily through their innings, while Jamie Overton, who took 3-24, was the pick of five England bowlers who took wickets.

Hardik Pandya marshalled the second half of India’s innings, but his sluggish 40 from 35 failed to swing the match back in the hosts ‘ favour.

The match was over when Buttler caught him off Overton, leaving England with a series win.

Playing on a pitch that looked good for a score of 200 or more, India’s target of 172 looked eminently chaseable.

But England’s seamers made early in-roads in the powerplay, as the hosts finished their first six overs on 51-3.

Adil Rashid intercepted Sanju Samson in mid-on, prompting Jofra Archer to make a superb tumbling catch to take Abhishek Sharma off Brydon Carse’s bowling.

Suryakumar Yadav, an Indian captain, skew the ball into orbit before slipping it into Phil Salt’s glovebox, who had replaced Jamie Smith as the injured wicketkeeper, as the third fast bowler to score.

In the previous match, Tilak Varma won the match by 72 runs, but Rashid bowled him for 18 in the 13th over to make it a superb 1-15. Overton had Washington Sundar caught by Buttler mid-on for six, leaving the home side 85-5.

Pandya batted with Axar Patel for 31 balls, putting on 48, but Archer removed the left-arm spinner to leave India needing 49 from 16 deliveries.

England will take comfort from their victory, but Brendon McCullum’s side’s continued struggles against India’s battery of spinners are still akin to those that were experienced.

They have now lost 18 wickets to turning deliveries in this series, a record for England in T20 series, beating the 14 they twice lost to New Zealand in 2019 and 2023.

Harry Brook has rarely experienced a speedbump in his international career, but a spinner mishandled him for a third straight game, under-edging onto his stumps for eight off Ravi Bishnoi.

The Yorkshire batter, who is averaging 12.66 in the series, was one of six England batters in their top nine who was dismissed for single figures.

Jamie Smith, who impressed on debut in Chennai, became the first of four successive Chakravarthy wickets, caught by Dhruv Jurel at mid-wicket.

Before Carse found Varma at square leg, Overton was bowled around his legs, and Archer had his stumps rooted out by a hard-spinner ball.

The seven lost in spin were capped by two wickets from seamer Pandya, with Phil Salt taking the opening one after Pandya had already sprinted to Abhishek Sharma.

His best of the series was the five-run innings of innings that the England opener had, and he has not gone past the second over.

England captain Jos Buttler: “You could look at we lost wickets in clumps but we had 170 on the board, which is a really good score.

We kept playing the game, and I love it. That is a great effort if you can be disappointed in your play and still receive 170.

On spinner Adil Rashid:” He is the most important player in our team. He bowled fantastically tonight, has so many variations and styles of bowling. He makes a huge difference to our organization.

Suryakumar Yadav, the captain of India, said, “We still had the game in our hands with Hardik and Axar.” Credit goes to Adil]Rashid], he bowled really well. We wanted to rotate the strike. He is a world-class bowler because of this.