Key events
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England win by 56 runs, and win the series 4-0
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WICKET! Axar c Jacks b Rashid 3, India 199-8
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WICKET! Shedge c Buttler b Curran 7, India 193-7
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WICKET! Tilak Varma c Buttler b Tongue 53, India 189-6
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WICKET! Dube c Archer b Curran 14, India 162-5
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WICKET! Ishan Kishan c Salt b Rashid 56, India 131-4
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Half century! Ishan Kishan 51 from 27 balls
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WICKET! Iyer c Curran b Dawson 28, India 110-3
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WICKET! Samson c Bethell b Curran 27, India 55-2
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WICKET! Abishek Sharma c Buttler b Archer 3, India 25-1
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India need 258 to win
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WICKET! Bethell c Tilak v Dube 0, England 241-3
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WICKET! Buttler c Iyer b Dube 131, England 241-2
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Century! Jos Buttler 101 from 51 balls
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Half century! Jos Buttler 50 from 34 balls
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Half century! Harry Brook 50 from 19 balls
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WICKET! Salt c Shedge b Krishna 6, England 8-1
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Teams – The Kid is out
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India win the toss and will bowl
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Start delayed
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Preamble
Here’s Simon Burnton’s verdict from the outskirts of Southampton:
An extraordinary, and extraordinarily one-sided, series got the ending it deserved, with England scoring a remarkable 257 for three – breaking the record they set in Mumbai in March for the highest total posted against India in T20s. Though the tourists’ chase was more impressive than much of their fielding they nevertheless lost by 56 runs and surrendered the series 4-0.
There will be more to come from us, with three ODIs to come very shortly. That will be a different looking India side. Virat Kohli will be back, Rohit Sharma will be back, Jasprit Bumrah will be back. The next gen for India will have to wait a little longer. The next one-day World Cup is a year and a bit away. Lots of intrigue around India in the medium format between now and then.
That’s enough for this evening, however. England the winners again. Now it’s just a question of how long it will take everyone near Southampton to drive home.
Jos Buttler will be player of the match, obviously. Pondering who might be player of the series – Harry Brook? That could be interesting, in the pondering about England’s Test captaincy. He seems more suited to leading in this format than the other.
There will be gnashing of teeth in segments of India’s media coverage, I’m sure, but perhaps it’s not surprising that a core of players who went through a T20 World Cup, then an IPL season, were less than fresh on a lengthy tour of very foreign climes. Most of England’s side, meanwhile, had some lower-key domestic cricket to tune up for this assigment, though there are a few IPL types in there as well. A more cheerful result for at least one England men’s side, at least. As per reader Guy Hornsby:
“Well, I guess one England side is good, Geoff, and in fact very good indeed. Even if the Test side is wonky, that can wait a few weeks, I guess.”
England win by 56 runs, and win the series 4-0
It’s a clean sweep, at least of the matches that were finished. One was a washout with no result after India had made a decent score, but who knows what would have happened there. England have swept India in the live fixtures, after Ireland did the same in their two matches against this Indian side, in what was a far more David v Goliath equation.
20th over: India 201-8 (Arshdeep 4, Krishna 1) Three singles, a two, a wicket, and Adil Rashid finishes with 2 for 24 from three overs, while India stagger over the threshold of 200 but still finish 56 short.
WICKET! Axar c Jacks b Rashid 3, India 199-8
Axar’s reprieve allow him to add two more runs, before holing out down the ground.
19th over: India 196-7 (Patel 1, Arshdeep 2) Taking a DRS review to avoid a wicket at this stage of a game should be punishable by prison. Mind you, getting out to that ball could also deserve that penalty. It’s a Curran moon ball that Axar misses and is hit high on the back leg. Given out on field. Going on to miss leg stump, says the DRS.
WICKET! Shedge c Buttler b Curran 7, India 193-7
It’s wasteful to use exclamation marks for wickets at this stage of a match. House style. Shedge whips a ball to the midwicket boundary, then hits a pull shot straight up. The keeper gets under it.
18th over: India 189-6 (Shedge 3) Last rites.
WICKET! Tilak Varma c Buttler b Tongue 53, India 189-6
Good knock from Tilak, from 25 balls in the end. He adds two more late sixes from Tongue’s bowling, the first over cover which always looks great, the next over fine leg with a pick-up pull. Then edges a cut shot from the last ball of Tongue’s day. Four overs, 1 for 53, and that’s a bowler who’ll end up on the side that comfortably wins.
17th over: India 173-5 (Varma 40, Shedge 2) Archer finishes his spell with 1 for 41, thanks to a Tilak drive for four, and a range of slower short balls that don’t get hit. India need 85 from three overs.
16th over: India 163-5 (Varma 31, Shedge 1) Curran uses his slower balls, his bouncer, his yorker, and concedes four runs from an over.
WICKET! Dube c Archer b Curran 14, India 162-5
Hooked to deep backward, and the inevitable shuffles closer.
15th over: India 159-4 (Varma 28, Dube 14) Josh Tongue is back with some pace, and Dube gets a couple of boundaries away, pulled and straight driven. India get the required runs into double figures. But that reads 99 from 30 balls.
14th over: India 147-4 (Varma 27, Dube 3) A nice straight drive from Tilak for six, but still Archer’s over only goes for 11. India need some of those 20+ jobs that England had several of.
13th over: India 136-4 (Varma 18, Dube 1) It should have been two in two for Rashid, but Brook at cover drops a skied shot from Dube’s first ball. They cross for a single, and Tilak Varma ends the over with four, but it’s still seven from the over, and India now need a near impossible 122 from seven overs.
WICKET! Ishan Kishan c Salt b Rashid 56, India 131-4
That’s the game. Kishan is the only one who has really purred today for India, and he knows that in Adil Rashid’s second over, he has to take the responsibility of taking some runs off the leg-spinner. It doesn’t work though, hit to a long boundary at cow, where Salt makes up good ground and takes a catch with a half five.
12th over: India 129-3 (Kishan 55, Varma 13) Tilak Varma wants to hammer England’s spin. Cut shot from Jacks for four, then a long bomb over long on for six. They need 16 an over from here, but the boundaries turn to singles and the over only concedes 14. Even with that beginning, it’s advantage England.
Half century! Ishan Kishan 51 from 27 balls
11th over: India 115-3 (Kishan 53, Varma 1) Kishan thinks that he’s raising his fifty with a boundary to midwicket, but Banton does very well to save it on the rope. Two runs for the pull shot. Only five from the over! Dawson doing a job.
WICKET! Iyer c Curran b Dawson 28, India 110-3
The drinks break strikes again. Big shot at the ball, Dawson bowls left-arm ortho, so that ball is spinning towards the off side and Iyer has tried to hit over leg. Sliced outside edge to backward point, where Curran is stationed.
10th over: India 110-2 (Kishan 49, Iyer 28) Will Jacks turns the screws the other way. The entire odour of the chase can change so quickly. Iyer manages to baseball a four down the ground, but only eight from the over means India need nearly 15 an over from the final ten.
9th over: India 102-2 (Kishan 47, Iyer 22) Kishan is playing a blinder. First some red-hot running to get back to the non-striker’s end for two, beating a direct hit from straight down the ground. Then takes strike and lifts Curran over fine leg for six. Then sends another ball the same way for four! That over goes for 15, which is ahead of the required rate for India. They need 156 from 11 overs.
“Is McCullum making a case to retain his coaching role in a shortform only basis?” asks Tom. “He seems to have inherited a T20 squad in a similar position to the Test one he picked up four years ago. Plenty of proven talent who know their game who he is backing and removing their shackles allowing them to shine. Are we gearing up for Bazball Mk-T20 as the ECB split the coaching and get a new Test coach who can develop the fundamentals of a younger squad who need more explicit instructions?”
That’s not the worst idea I’ve heard in recent weeks. Better than the ECB’s nothing-to-see-here approach that they’ve maintained since January.
8th over: India 87-2 (Kishan 36, Iyer 19) Adil Rashid perhaps the key with the ball… and Ishan Kishan takes him on! Dances down to smack a straight four, then dances again only to change his shot and pull another one. A dozen from the over, India need 14 an over, to get 171 from 72 balls.
7th over: India 75-2 (Kishan 26, Iyer 17) Liam Dawson getting a rare chance for England, very good over first up. Varies his pace, works over the Indian batters, keeping them to singles and leg byes until the final ball, when Shreyas Iyer flicks four through the leg side. Nonetheless, the over drives up the required rate for India.
6th over: India 65-2 (Kishan 25, Iyer 9) The captain not messing around, he slams Curran down the ground first ball for four. Then gets one short enough to pull the ball fine.
“If it wasn’t for the crowd they might as well call this game and go home,” emails Richard Slassor. I’d just wait to see when the next wicket falls before making that call.
Ten from the over, and the wicket. India need 193 from 84. India with a few more runs from the Powerplay than England scored, but one more wicket.
WICKET! Samson c Bethell b Curran 27, India 55-2
No good! Samson just props forward at a medium pace delivery and chips it to cover. Curran gets a wicket with his first ball of the day.
5th over: India 55-1 (Samson 27, Kishan 25) Keeping India in touch, is Ishan Kishan. Finds another six for this team from Josh Tongue, using the short ball and swivelling to hit it very fine, then guides another ball fine on the other side of the keeper to deep third for four. A dozen from the over. 203 more needed in 90 balls.
4th over: India 43-1 (Samson 27, Kishan 13) India still having a go, with Jacks coming on to bowl spin. A boundary for Kishan sweeping, another for Samson over mid off, though in between times Samson was almost caught at backward point. Just short of Curran.
India need 215 more to win.
3rd over: India 33-1 (Samson 22, Kishan 8) Archer tries going short, but Ishan Kishan doesn’t mind. He’s very short himself, so he arches his back to uppercut a boundary, then slams one squarer.
WICKET! Abishek Sharma c Buttler b Archer 3, India 25-1
Pokey little shot from Abishek, trying to rotate the strike, but instead he dabs the ball into the wicketkeeper’s gloves.
2nd over: India 23-0 (Samson 21, Abishek 2) Sanju has a point to prove! Left out of the side just after being the key to India’s T20 World Cup win: you could understand why the management wanted to have a look at Sooryavanshi given his red-hot IPL, but it still would have been galling for the incumbent. So he’ll enjoy hitting Josh Tongue for six, once, then twice, both from shorter balls hit over the leg side.
1st over: India 10-0 (Samson 9, Abishek 1) Jofra Archer with the ball, bowling a tight channel outside off, but Samson manages to just squeeze his straight hit past Brook at mid off, then nicks a ball fine for four more. 10 from the first, though they need about 13 an over.
India need 258 to win
They came here wanting to avoid being swept, and they look very much like a team that will be swept. Horrible display from India in the field, drops and fumbles and all the rest, bowling that just got met wherever it went. Only seven overs conceded runs in single figures.
England’s partnership was 233, only three runs behind the Full Member record of 236 that Afghanistan set against Ireland, and only behind two other stands in all T20 International cricket. Germany had a 238 against Austria, and Japan a 258 against China, and safe to say the bowling and the boundary sizes would have aided those efforts more than they did this.
20th over: England 257-3 (Brook 95, Jacks 7) Brook up to 90, backs away from the yorker and smokes it down the ground. Then he plays a leave! Thinks he’ll get a wide called, but it’s right on the blue touch paper outside off. Dot ball, on 90, with four to go.
Should be caught now… and dropped! Deep square leg, Ishan Kishan under it, and somehow lets it through his hands. Brook has jogged through, expecting to be out, but that now means that he’s lost strike. Jacks gets him a single and strike back, meaning he needs a six and a four.
He doesn’t get either. Scores two apiece from the final two balls to reach 95 not out, should have been run out coming back for the second on the final ball, but some more horrible fielding and that chance is also botched.
19th over: England 247-3 (Brook 86, Jacks 6) The hat-trick ball… is hit for six! This is pure silliness. Nice ball on a length for Jacks, who tee-balls it over the leg side.
Brook has one more over to try to get a ton himself. He’s sat on 86 for a long time.
WICKET! Bethell c Tilak v Dube 0, England 241-3
Dube is on a hat-trick! Bethell does the team thing, looks for a big shot, and is caught down the ground.
Six, six, four, wicket, wicket…