India vs England, 4th T20 at Pune, India win by 15 runs
England kicking themselves as they let India off the leash after concussion sub controversy.
Oh for what might have been. England will be devastated having thrown away the opportunity to set up a mouth watering decider in Mumbai on Sunday.
Jos Buttler finally won the toss and asked India to bat. England made two changes from their winning side in Rajkot; Bethell in for Smith, and Mahmood in for Wood. It was a dream start for Mahmood who took a triple wicket maiden in the second over of the match to leave India treading water at 12-3. Sanju Samson, and Suryakumar Yadav’s series from hell continued, whilst Tilak Varma showed he was human, dismissed for a golden duck. The crowd stunned, you could hear a pin drop in that sea of blue.
Rinku Singh, returning from injury, and the irresistable Abishek Sharma set about repairing the damage. 45 runs later, Rashid sent Sharma packing, Carse followed suit and removed Rinku Singh 3 overs later. At 79-5, England were smelling blood. Time to sharpen the spikes, and press down on the Indian throat. The experienced Hardik Pandya, and returning Shivam Dube had different ideas. They put on a heartbreaking 87 run partnership, the English bowlers had no answers, perhaps guilty of expecting one of the batters to offer up a chance. From 12-3, India finished on 181-9. Momentum firmly in their favour. The only damage inflicted from England in this period of play was a Jamie Overton bouncer concussing Shivam Dube, more on that later.
Phil Salt and Ben Duckett strode to the crease with purpose and set about carving the Indian bowlers to all parts. Duckett sweeping the spinners in all directions with that magic brush of his. The last ball of the powerplay was too tempting for Duckett as he finally succomed to the wiley Ravi Bishnoi for a well made 39 off 19 balls. With 6 overs bowled, England were 62-1 with WinViz favouring the tourists. 3 runs later, the old adage of one brings two rang true as Phil Salt departed for a well fought 23. WinViz was back to 50/50 and England needed a strong showing from the roses men. Yorkshire’s Harry Brook, and the adopted Lancastrian Buttler. To the anguish of the English, Buttler was caught at short third man attempting to cut a wide delivery from Bishnoi. The third man catcher was non other than Harshit Rana. Buttler was spewing as he left the field, as England felt Rana was not a “like for like” replacement for the concussed Shivam Dube. Dube is a batting allrounder who rarely bowls for India, whereas, Rana is very much a fast bowler who swings the bat a bit. To add salt to the wounds, Rana went on to take 3-33 from his four overs including the crucial wickets of Liam Livingstone, and Jacob Bethell. Harry Brook batted beautifully for 51 with some strokeplay which had the English dug out purring with excitement. However, like Duckett in the previous game, it was 50 and out for Brook, tamely scooping a Charavarthy delivery to short fine leg. Most frustatingly of all, it was Charavarthy’s final over and England were on target with the rate and so the shot felt wasteful. Once Brook was out, the fat lady had started to sing as a series defeat was the order of play from here on in. Jamie Overton showed he was capable with willow in hand, but ultimately there was too much to do, and England finished 15 runs short of India’s total.
It is a disappointing result for England, losing a match when you have the opposition 12-3 is hard to take. However, hats off to Pandya and Shivam Dube, that was a hell of a partnership. For this England team to challenge for titles, the batsman need to be more greedy and turn those starts into scores.