Varun fifer in vain as England keep series alive in Rajkot

Visitors beat India by 26 runs in the third T20I, take scoreline to 2-1
Varun Chakravarthy celebrates a wicket with his teammates in Rajkot
Varun Chakravarthy celebrates a wicket with his teammates in Rajkot PTI
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2 min read

CHENNAI: When Varun Chakravarthy was getting ready to finish his second over of the match at Rajkot, Jos Buttler and Ben Duckett had already laid the platform for a big total at the Niranjan Shah Stadium on Tuesday. It was the last ball of the ninth over and the scoreboard read 83/1.

While the rate at which England were going made it seem like even 200 might be sub par on this pitch, the first over of Varun had shown enough to know that it had something for the bowlers. Having been in tremendous form since his comeback, Varun had made Buttler and Duckett dance to his tunes in the last over of the powerplay. It saw England manage only three runs, finishing with 52/1 from the first six.

Here, once again, Varun was dictating terms despite the run rate. On 8.6, Buttler tried to disrupt, going for a reverse sweep, something he had done successfully earlier against Ravi Bishnoi. This time, however, it proved to be counterproductive. A slender bottom-edge, which Sanju Samson was sure of, meant the England captain took the long walk back. Although no one knew it for sure, that was the moment things turned away from England. Duckett fell shortly after his fifty to Axar Patel, Bishnoi cleaned up Harry Brook.

By the time Varun came back, England were 108/4 in 13 overs. Jamie Smith took Varun for a clean hit down the ground before trying a vertical heave through midwicket while being on his backfoot. The shortish delivery found the fielder. Next ball, a quicker one that drifted under James Overton to smash the leg stumps. While Liam Livingstone was holding forte at one end while trying to keep up the run rate, the rest hit the self-destruct button.

With just three balls left for Varun to complete his quota, instead of safely playing him out, Brydon Carse looked to sweep the spinner into the stands and fell. Jofra Archer was cleaned up two balls later by a beauty and Varun had his fifer — his second in the format as well as in the last three months. In the end, England finished with 171/9 in 20 overs.

Despite the consistent show from Varun, the total proved to be enough as India fell short by XX runs. They lost Sanju Samson early, but Suryakumar Yadav and Abhishek Sharma kept the chase going. However, just like Varun, leg-spinner Adil Rashid proved to be the game changer. He might not have five wickets to show, but Rashid removed Tilak Varma and finished his quota of four overs for just 1/15.

That Hardik Pandya went into a shell and India's move to hold back Dhruv Jurel did not help their case either. Washington Sundar struggled to get going and by the time he got out, the required run rate had gone up significantly. Pandya made 40 runs runs from 35 balls, but it was an onslaught that ended up being too little too late. Overton was England's best bowler, taking 3/23.

Brief scores: England 171/9 in 20 ovs (Duckett 51, Livingstone 43; Hardik 2/33, Varun 5/24) bt India .

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