Hardik, spinners hand India series-sealing win over England in T20Is

Kolkata: Conviction finds strange ways of making itself felt. Hardik Pandya knows, flipping from the low of a 35-ball 40 in Rajkot to muscling a 30-ball 53 in Pune. Shivam Dube hasn’t played a T20I in six months, but you wouldn’t know that from the way he wove 53 from 34 balls. His concussion allowed for the somewhat controversial debut of Harshit Rana as a substitute, removing Liam Livingstone and Jacob Bethell before knocking over Jamie Overton in a brilliant penultimate over to ensure a 15-run win for India that sealed the five-match series in their favour.

It could have been Ben Duckett’s day though. Or Harry Brook’s for that matter. Till the time Duckett was pulling, heaving, sweeping and reverse-sweeping his way to a spectacular 39 off 19 balls, India were looking down for the count. Sixty two runs were added in the first six overs when Ravi Bishnoi baited Duckett with a fuller wrong’un after keeping fielders at deep square leg and deep backward point. Duckett still went across the line but only got a leading edge to Suryakumar Yadav at extra cover. Jos Buttler gone trying to cut Bishnoi, England could have been forced into a shell.

But Brook resisted. Pulling Varun Chakravarthy through midwicket and working Rana’s pace off his pads for a few boundaries, Brook breezed to a 26-ball 51 that propelled England to 124/4 after 14 overs. Required run rate below 10 runs an over now, a series-equalling win was there for the taking. But spin again proved to be England’s scourge as Chakravarthy induced a needless scoop from Brook just after he got to his fifty. England’s last six wickets fell for only 38 runs.

Put into bat, India were off to a shambolic start, courtesy their predilection for lofted shots. Sanju Samson was once again dismissed trying the pull shot, only getting a leading edge off Saqib Mahmood to Brydon Carse at deep square leg. Next ball, Tilak Varma didn’t even look to keep his shot down as he charged down the pitch but the ball took an outside edge and flew to Jofra Archer at third man. Last ball of that over, Mahmood literally silenced the stadium by getting Suryakumar Yadav work the ball off his pads, only to hit it straight to Carse brought to mid-on exactly for that sort of dismissal.

The innings teetering at 12 for 3, India was in need of a partnership. Rinku Singh was a steadying influence as Abhishek Sharma tried to pull India out of the hole. Having set an exciting tone to his innings with a six and four off Archer in the first over, Sharma showed he meant business when crunched Mahmood through covers for a four before caressing a fuller delivery for another boundary. He even seemed to have a measure of Adil Rashid with a four through square but the leg-spinner bounced back luring Sharma into a slog sweep straight to Jacob Bethell at deep mid-wicket. Rinku gone four balls into the 11th over, responsibility fell on Pandya to fashion a rescue act again.

Pandya didn’t deviate from his routine this time as well, sussing the field, taking time to eye himself in. Twelve off 16 balls in the 15th over, with Shivam Dube going great guns, Pandya started flexing his levers. Mahmood bowled length and Pandya gave him the charge to carve a lofted off-drive for six. Mahmood went slower and shorter but Pandya again found the middle of his bat, heaving across the line and clearing the fielder at deep midwicket. First ball of the next over from Archer, Pandya cleared his front leg to launch it over long-off. Jamie Overton denied him length but Pandya still muscled it over long-on. In a 17-ball carnage, Pandya and Dube had piled on 53 runs, enough to spell out the difference between the two sides.