Key events
3rd over: England 22-1 (Salt 0, Brook 8) Stand and deliver, Buttler pummels Arshdeep straight for six – before perishing next ball. Brook gives himself a ball to get his eye in, then backs away as if he’s unveiling a statue and scoops six for himself.
WICKET! Buttler c Ishan Kishan b Arshdeep 8 (England 13-1)
Buttler statically tries to run the ball down to third, but instead delivers a nice easy catch to Ishan Kishan.
2nd over: England 7-0 (Salt 0, Buttler 2) Prasidh from the other end. Nippy. Washington fluffs his lines at midwicket, the ball nibbling through his legs. Well bowled – just three from it.
England need 159 to win
1st over: England 4-0 (Salt 0, Buttler 0) Arshdeep Singh with the first over, long slim shadow of the floodlight stretched half way across the pitch. Finds some swing, the third ball looping past Salt and keeper for four byes. The last ball hits the twirling Salt on the pads and Arshdeep half appeals an lbw. A neat and tidy start.
Fabulous innings by Shreyas Iyer but not much else to report from the Indian batting. Archer and Tongue were fantastic again, Jacks and Curran turned the screws, while Rashid’s figures were spoilt by one attacking over from Shreyas. Time for me to grab a drink of water – back shortly.
WICKET! Axar run out (Jofra Archer’s right foot) 1 (India 158-7)
20th over: India 158-7 (Shreyas Iyer 80) Awesome final over from Jofra Archer, topped off by a right footed dink into the stumps to run out Axar.
WICKET! Washington c Rashid b Archer 5 (India 157-6)
Hauls a bouncer from Jofra over his shoulder, straight to the waiting Rashid at long leg.
19th over: India 154 -5 (Shreyas Iyer 79, Washington 3) Clever over from Curran, who collects his sunglasses and cap having conceded just four singles and two dot balls from the penultimate over. An amend to the below stat – the first innings average score in internationals is 181.
18th over: India 150-5 (Shreyas Iyer 77, Washington 1 ) Shreyas Iyer slams boot on accelerator: six, four, six – the last steaming over long on, scorch marks from his dancing soles. And suddenly Rashid’s four overs have gone for 49.
Vic Marks on TMS tells me that the average score in T20 internationals at Bristol is 158.
17th over: India 130-5 (Shreyas Iyer 58, Washington 0) A fourth over of Tongue, giant strides, matching shadow. A monster six flicked like a lazy afternoon, but Tilak falls to another short delivery next ball.
And a big hello to my dad Anthony who is in hospital after a knee replacement – hope you can get the cricket on!
WICKET! Tilak c Ahmed b Tongue 11 (India 130-5)
A something and nothing slide and guide straight to backward point
16th over: India 121-4 (Shreyas Iyer 55, Tilak 5) India are frustrated by Will Jacks, whose head is sheared, just a little longer than Auger-Aliassime’s Wimbledon grass court trim. Just five singles from it. Are we going to get any Rehan Ahmed?
Fifty for Shreyas Iyer
15th over: India 116-4 (Shreyas Iyer 52, Tilak 3) A cursory wave of the bat from Shreyer as he reaches 50 off 33 balls – he’s still got work to do. A four and a six off Rashid’s over.
14th over: India 10343 (Shreyas Iyer 40, Tilak 2) A ridiculously acrobatic chase and tumble by Jacob Bethell to stop a Shreyas four , is matched by Tom Banton, who sprints, slides and returns to cut off a Shivam Dube boundary. Next ball, Banton goes one better and catches it.
WICKET! Shivam c Banton b Jacks 22 (India 101-4)
A leading edge really well caught by Banton on the run, tracking the ball as it falls, like a birdwatcher in a meadow. Another pretty ugly swipe by India.
13th over: India 94-3 (Shreyas Iyer 36, Shivam 19) Sam Curran. A wide. Then he outfoxes Shivam who reverses early giving Curran time to tweaks his line. Shivam does eventually get one away to the rope – through midwicket with a frying pan. England then plump for an eye-raising lbw review – and lose it.
12th over: India 87-3 (Shreyas Iyer 35, Shivam 14) A second over for Jacks – starts with a wide, and India add five singles. The crowd are fanning themselves, hope there’s some shade to escape to if it all gets too much.
11th over: India 81-3 ( Shreyas Iyer 33, Shivam 11) Rashid resumes. Shreyas misses a cut. Shivam slog sweeps but just short of Sam Curran. Shreyas goes up and over extra cover with dancing feet but only picks up two. Next ball he dances down, leans back, and flames six.
10th over: India 71-3 (Shreyas Iyer 24, Shivam 10) They take DRINKS at half way through the innings – Shreyas and Shivam have locked down and built a platform – can they blast off? . A boundary in that over from Tongue – four for Shivam through the covers.
9th over: India 64-3 (Shreyas Iyer 22, Shivam 5) Tip and run to Sam Curran as India lick their wounds.
8th over: India 58-3 (Iyer 19, Shivam 2) Brook pulls out his Archer trump card. Just a leg bye and a single until the last ball – when Iyer bends right down as if squatting to do a head over heels, lifts his bat and upper cuts for six.
7th over: India 50-3 (Iyer 13, Shivam 1) Time for the rebuild. Captain’s knock?
WICKET! Abhishek c and b Rashid 16 (India 48-3)
Fabulous caught and bowled by Rashid, who detours from his follow through to collect another mis-pull-slog off his own bowling, beating Buttler into the covers.
6th over: India 43-2 (Abhishek 14, Iyer 9) The final slot of the power play falls to Sam Curraan. He wipes the sweat from his face – it’s still ferociously hot – and scampers (does he do anything else?) in. A tidy over, apart from a back foot dreamy, wristy thing of wonder from Iyer that beats a diving Bethell.
5th over: India 37-2 (Abhishek 13, Iyer 4) Josh Tongue changes ends with immediate results. A wafty gentle flick brings four for Iyer – more of that, less of the heave-ho.
WICKET! Ishan Curran c b Tongue (India 33-2)
This time it’s Ishan done to the short ball, flinging the bat wildly and squirting to short third. This is all a bit haphazard. Gambir chews a white ball in the dugout.
4th over: India 32-1 (Abhishek 12, Ishan 4) Will Jacks shimmies through an over. Abhishek pushes with one finger at the door and eases the most perfect cover drive all the way to the rope.
3rd over: India 24-1 (Abhishek 6, Ishan 1) Not quite working for Sooryavanshi yet here in England, he looks to the skies and pulls off his helmet, shaggy teenage hair hanging in disappointment.
WICKET! Sooryavanshi c Curran b Archer 15 (India 23-1)
A big hit too many, squares up his body and throws the bat at a ball creeping up on him– the ball shimmies at the moon before falling into the hands of Curran at mid on.
2nd over: India 20-0 (Sooryavanshi 15, Abhishek 6) Josh Tongue’s first over is more costly – both batters slam him back over extra cover for four, Sooryavanshi perching on tip toes as he goes. Then Sooryavanshi fullstops Tongue’s work with a delicate, seemingly effortless, upper cut for six.
1st over: India 5-0 (Sooryavanshi 3, Abhishek 1) Jofra Archer from the pavilion end. Starts with a wide – and Sooryavanshi swings but can only pick up a single from the second. A single to Abhishek follows. Archer is bowling clever here. A reckless pull from Sooryavanshi lumbers towards the rope and is caught up by a chasing Adil Rashid.
The players are out, the sun beats down – let’s play!
If England win today and on Saturday they go top of the world. Amidst the rubble of the red-ball team, the white ball team is quietly on the up. Perhaps a white ball only transition is the next step for Baz McCullum . Meanwhile, if India lose, it will be the first time they have ever lost two back to back T20 series.
India XI
India: Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Ishan Kishan (wk), Shreyas Iyer (c), Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Prince Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna
England XI
England: Phil Salt, Jos Buttler (wk), Harry Brook (c), Jacob Bethell, Tom Banton, Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Rehan Ahmed, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Josh Tongue.
India win the toss and will bat!
Shreyas Iyer says he is going to have a bat, tactially India need to be up to the mark. Surface looks good. Two changes – Washington Sundar and Prasidh Krisha replace Harshit Rana and Varun Chakravarthy, who are both injured.
Harry Brook would have batted too. He says England “played awesome” at Trent Bridge. More of the same, he urges. One change: Rehan Ahmed replaces Liam Dawson.
Preamble
Hello! Come swelter with me as we watch England and India roll into match four of this under-the radar T20 series.
Today, it’s Bristol: England with a spring in their step and an unassailable two-nil lead, India with some red faces after a record international T20 defeat – bowled out for 76 in 11.4 overs at Trent Bridge. So far the Vaibhav Sooryavanshi fireworks have failed to spark – bounced out for 13 by Jofra Archer at Trent Bridge and stumped for 14 at Old Trafford. Will he light the touch paper today? Join me to find out. Toss soon, start of play 5.30BST.