NAGPUR: At the end of a gripping game, India’s losing record in T20Is at VCA Stadium ended on Sunday in the second match against England. Jasprit Bumrah, under the scanner heading into this game because of some profligate bowling at the death, was the star.
His last two overs, 18th and 20th of the innings, went for just five runs combined. England needed eight off the last over, but Bumrah sent back a set Joe Root and the dangerous Jos Buttler to seal the deal for the hosts. “It was a game we should have won. The umpiring error is obviously frustrating for us, and we will mention it in our match report. But we’ll just have to move on and make sure we work harder ahead of the decider,” England skipper Eoin Morgan noted.
He was adjudged leg-before in the last over despite getting an inside edge. England’s chase of a modest 145 started off badly, with veteran Ashish Nehra scalping openers Jason Roy and Sam Billings. Morgan and Joe Root took England to 65/2 at the halfway stage, before the former heaved Amit Mishra into Hardik Pandya’s hands. Next ball, the Haryana leg-spinner bowled a beauty to clip Ben Stokes’ off stump. But replays confirmed it to be a no-ball, and the all-rounder threatened to take advantage by biffing 38 off just 27 balls, and putting together 52 runs with Root, who until then was playing the role of the anchor to perfection.
.jpg?w=640&auto=format%2Ccompress)
Nehra came back and removed Stokes with a slower ball, but in the 19th over, gave away 16 runs to hand England the advantage. Bumrah ensured he gave Virat Kohli a chance of winning his first T20I series as full-time captain. The teams head for Bengaluru for the last match on February 1, with the series tied 1-1. “I knew in a game where we’re defending just 145, it was vital to get early wickets, and I’m glad I was able to do that. Jasprit is a talented bowler, and very good at the death. I knew I had to give him as many to defend as possible in the final over, and though my last over cost quite a bit, he managed to pull it off.
Defending eight in the final over of a T20 is never easy, and it shows how he has matured. He can only get better here on,” Nehra opined. Earlier, the Indian innings followed the same script as in the first game. Only this time, they managed three runs lesser than the Kanpur loss, totalling 144/8. The opening partnership failed yet again, England’s bowlers were again parsimonious, and Yuvraj Singh just couldn’t get out of his T20I slump.
Skipper Virat Kohli also can’t seem to handle England in the shortest format, for they are his worst opponents in terms of average (29.25). KL Rahul, who had done little of note over the entire limited-over series, contributed 71 valuable runs, and put on the only 50-plus stand of the innings, with a scratchy Manish Pandey. Credit to Morgan and his bowlers, who once again came up with set plans for each batsman. Led by the metronomic Moeen Ali, they choked the Indians, and boundaries were hard to come by. Such was their successful execution of plans that India managed just 75 runs in the last 10 overs. But ultimately, that proved just about enough.