With a fifer at Rajkot, Chakravarthy’s tally of wickets during the current series rose to 10. Earlier, he had taken 12 wickets in four T20I matches of the away series against South Africa last year
Despite his fifer, during which he missed a hattrick chance, India finished on the losing side in the third T20I against England at Rajkot
Loss means 5-match series still wide open with India leading 2-1; Next match is at Pune on Friday
Shami’s first appearance in an international match, after nearly a year and a half layoff due to injury, proved uneventful
Sanju Samson and skipper Suryakumar Yadav’s poor run of form during the series cause for concern for the Indian camp
The visiting England team appears to be coming into its own in the 5-match T20I series against India. After Player of the Match Tilak Varma thwarted England’s march to victory in the second match at Chennai with a masterly unbeaten 72 (England lost the thriller by two wickets), the visitors tasted their first victory of the tour by 26 runs at Rajkot on Tuesday night to keep the series alive at 2-1.
A high point for India was Varun Chakravarthy’s continuing magical spin bowling, which England batsmen are failing to read. However, despite his remarkable figures of 5/24 in his quota of four overs, which deservedly won him the Player of the Match award, India found themselves on the losing side.
With this fifer, during which he missed claiming a hattrick, Chakravarthy’s tally of wickets during the current series rose to 10, making him the first Indian player to claim 10 or more wickets in a T20I series twice. He had taken 12 wickets in four T20Is in an away series against South Africa last year.
India’s ace fast bowler Mohammed Shami, finally given a chance to play in an international match, after nearly a year-and-a-half layoff while recovering from injury, looked quite rusty despite earlier having a good bowl in domestic cricket. He was tidy without being penetrative, giving away 25 runs in the three overs he bowled and going wicketless.
But surprisingly Shami was included in the playing XI in place of in-form Arshdeep Singh, which made little sense since he is a wicket-taking bowler especially with an awesome reputation for dismissing opposition batsmen in the first six powerplay overs.
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A subpar England total
Put into bat for the third consecutive match by Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav, England, after a solid start (at one stage they were 83-1), could manage a total of only 171 runs, seen as a subpar score, considering that the average innings score at Rajkot before the match was 189.
But England’s pace attack rose to the occasion and displayed much greater discipline in its bowling at Rajkot. It was consistent and it was targeted short-pitched bowling, which paid rich dividends, with India’s top three back in the pavilion within the first six powerplay overs.
Experienced wrist spinner Adil Rashid added to the pressure as he tied up the Indian middle order batsmen in knots, extracting appreciable both-way spin on an otherwise placid wicket.
Archer’s takedown plan for Samson
First to go in the third over was Sanju Samson, for whom England quick Jofra Archer appears to have found a takedown formula. For the third time in the series, he dug the ball in short and the skid on it took Samson by surprise, a resultant mishit falling in the hands of Adil Rashid at mid-on. Samson made 3 runs of 6 balls.
The other opener, left-handed Abhishek Sharma was his usual belligerent self. After a flurry of boundaries both sides of the stumps, he became the first victim of pacer Brydon Carse, who replaced Mark Wood in the fourth over.
Having been hit for two boundaries of his first three deliveries, Carse still stuck to his plan and a mistimed lofted shot from Abhishek went high in the air for Archer at mid-off to run a fair distance to his right and take a brilliant catch, stretching full length backwards to grasp the ball with both hands and then tumbling over to maintain his balance.
Captain Suryakumar Yadav, who promoted himself up the order at No. 3, ahead of left-handed Tilak Varma, apparently to maintain the left-right hand combination at the fall of Samson’s wicket, again struck the ball cleanly, hoisting Archer for his typical high flick six over deep square leg and following it with a slashing off drive for a boundary.
However, as has been happening on previous occasions, he did not last long, falling first ball in the 6th over, attempting another high flick this time against Mark Wood and mistiming it straight to hand.
Tilak Varma’s unbeaten run broken
The hero of the 2nd T20I at Chennai, Tilak Varma, coming in at No. 4 after the fall of Abishek Sharma’s wicket, was stroking the ball well when he fell victim to an unexpectedly sharp turner from Rashid which pierced his defences and crashed into the stumps.
The dismissal (at 18 of 14 balls, with India’s total reading 68-4 at the end of the 8th over) was Varma’s first dismissal in the last 5 matches, having remained unbeaten on the previous four occasions tallying 318* runs.
Unable to get bowlers away
Following Varma’s dismissal Indian’s run rate began to fall as allrounders Hardik Pandya, Washington Sundar and Axar Patel failed to get the bowlers – Rashid and pacers Carse and Jamie Overton – away. Rashid was the most difficult to negotiate as he spun the ball both ways, mixing up his regular leg spin with googlies. He finished with splendid figures of 1-15 in his quota of 4 overs.
Sundar eventually fell for 6 of 15 balls and Axar for 15 of 16 balls.
At one stage just 25 runs came of 7 overs.
In the 15th over, when Hardik hit Overton’s first ball over his head for a boundary, it was the Indian innings’ first four in 45 balls.
Meanwhile the required run rate climbed from nearly 10 at the end of the 11th over to over 14 at the end of the 15th (72 required in 30 balls).
Though Hardik did smash a couple of sixes in his innings of 40 of 35 balls, for most part his strike rate was much below par.
Specialist batsman Dhruv Jurel, who was pushed much down the order to No. 8, in an apparently inexplicable move to maintain the left-right hand combination even in the lower middle order, had practically no role to play with just over two overs to go. He scored just two of 4 balls before holding out to the wicketkeeper, trying a ramp shot in desperation.
For England Jamie Overton claimed three wickets, Archer and Carse two apiece, and Mark Wood and Adil Rashid one each.
England innings
In England’s innings, their opener wicketkeeper-batsman Phil Salt disappointing again, holding out to Abhishek Sharma at cover to a pace off delivery from Hardik Pandya in the 2nd over. He made just 5 of 7 balls.
But then the other opener Ben Duckett and captain Jos Buttler stitched together a solid partnership to take the team total to 83-1 before Buttler departed in the 9th over, becoming first of spinner Varun Chakravarthy’s 5 victims.
Buttler (24 of 22 balls, 1×4, 1×6), attempted a reverse sweep and under edged a difficult catch to Sanju Samson behind the stumps. After the on-field umpire turned down a vociferous appeal by Samson, who went up instantly, confident he had got the man, the keeper convinced his skipper for a review, and it was upheld.
Collapse triggered
Duckett, the only half centurion among both teams (51 of 28 balls, 7x4s, 2x6s), too departed in the next over, falling to Axar Patel, triggering a collapse from 108-4 to 127-8. The wrecker-in-chief was Chakravarthy, who missed a hattrick, after claiming the wickets of Jamie Smith and Jamie Overton of consecutive balls in his third over, 14th of the innings.
No. 8 batsman Carse, who had managed to block Varun Chakravarthy’s hattrick ball, however, did not survive his next over, trying a lofted sweep shot to be caught in the deep. Jofra Archer fell as his fifth victim on the last ball of the same over, completely missing the line and finding his off stump knocked down, much to his disbelief.
Big hitting Liam Livingstone, who had a poor run in the first two matches, came as their saviour, hitting the ball to all parts of the ground. His knock of 43 of 24 was studded with 1×4 and 5x6s.
The last wicket pair of Adil Rashid (10 of 9) and Mark Wood (10 of 10) also showed resistance. Their 24-run unbeaten partnership eventually made the difference between a win and loss, as India lost by just two runs above that partnership figure.
