Sharma, Pandya crush England

Devastating power hitting by India clinched the T20I series against England 2-1.

With the series level, England put pressure on India by posting a competitive 198-9 off their 20 overs.

Jason Roy (67 off 31 balls, four fours, seven sixes, S/R 216.12) and Jos Buttler (34 off 21 balls, seven fours) added 94 for the first wicket inside eight overs to set Indian nerves jangling, after which Alex Hales (30 off 20 balls, three fours, two sixes) and Jonny Bairstow (25 off 14 balls, two fours, two sixes) weighed in with useful contributions to set India 199 to take the match and the series.

Hardik Pandya suffered his fair share of punishment with the ball, being blasted for three fours and three sixes, but he also picked up 4-38 (econ 9.50), all of whom were England’s top- and middle-order. Keeper MS Dhoni took three of those catches, and added another two to equal the record for the most dismissals in a T20I innings by a wicketkeeper. However, in adding a run out he effectively took top spot as the most productive keeping display in a T20I. He is also the first keeper to take five catches in a T20I innings.

Yuzvendra Chahal was the most economical with the ball, his four overs costing just 30 runs (econ 7.50).

Most wicketkeeper dismissals in a T20I innings

Despite the early loss of out-of-form Shikhar Dhawan, India started their innings on fire before KL Rahul fell for 19 off 10 balls with the score on 62 after 5.2 overs. Virat Kohli joined Rohit Sharma and the pair added 89 to keep them on track until the 15th over when just two runs came off the bat. Kohli then fell caught and bowled to a smart catch by Chris Jordan after he had driven hard and straight back at the bowler.

The Indian skipper’s 43 came off 29 balls (two fours, two sixes) at a strike-rate of 148.27.

The 16th over offered up just four singles which left India with 11 runs required per over to win, at which point Pandya and Sharma took the match by the scruff of the neck, hammering 15 off over 17 and 20 runs off over 18, with the former doing the bulk of the damage.

Sharma took four and then a single off the first two balls of the 19th over to bring up his third T20I century off 56 balls (11 fours, five sixes, S/R 178.57), before Pandya brought the series to a close by stroking a superb six over long-on off Jordan. 

Pandya ended 33 not out off 14 balls (four fours, two sixes, S/R 235.71) to add to his four-wicket haul, but it wasn’t enough to wrest the Player of the Match honours away from Sharma for his imperious, match-winning innings. Sharma also took the Player of the Series award back to his hotel room.  

After being up against it earlier in the day, India ended up winning at a relative canter with eight wickets and 10 balls in hand to gain an important psychological advantage over their hosts ahead of the ODIs and Tests.

MOST CENTURIES IN T20Is

There have only been 34 T20I centuries, but 20 of those have been scored by nine batsmen who, with Sharma and New Zealand’s white-ball specialist Colin Munro leading the list with three tons apiece.

Source: Cricinfo

Scorecard

Photo: Stu Forster/Getty Images)