Bumrah, Nehra star in India’s five-star win
India beat England by 5 runs in the second Twenty20 to level the three-match series 1-1
NAGPUR: India produced an inspired bowling display to deny England their first limited-overs series in the country since 1984, winning the second Twenty-20 International (T20I) here on Sunday by five runs.
India posted 144/8 after being sent into bat in the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium. England, seemingly in control, faltered at the end to be restricted to 139/6.
Young pacer Jasprit Bumrah bowled an inspired last over, conceding only two runs, to deny England a victory. He finished the match with figures of 20/2 in his four overs, giving away only three runs in the 18th over.
Veteran pacer Asish Nehra (3/28) also contributed to India’s win.
England won the first match of the three-match series by seven wickets at Kanpur. The third match is at Bengaluru on February 1.
Sam Billings (12) got England going in the run chase with two huge sixes of leg-spinner Yuzvender Chahal in the third over.
But Nehra struck twice in the next over, having Billings (12) caught by Bumrah at fine leg in the first ball and then induced a leading edge of Jason Roy (10) in the next ball to be caught at mid-on by Suresh Raina.
The twin strikes jolted England. They needed time to get back in their run-chasing groove. Skipper Eoin Morgan (17) and Joe Root (38) began rebuilding. Root struck two fours in the ninth over, off leg-spinner Amit Mishra, to increase the run rate.
But their ambitions received a blow when Morgan mistimed a lofted shot off Mishra to be caught at deep midwicket in the 11th over.
Mishra then bowled Ben Stokes (38) in the third ball of the over but replays showed he overstepped to concede a noball. Stokes launched himself to a boundary and a six off Raina in the 14th over to increase the run rate. He continued with a pull shot off Chahal for a six to bring up England’s 100 in the 15th over.
England were 104/3 in 15 overs, needing 41 runs off 30 balls. The 52-run fourth-wicket partnership of Root and Stokes steadily took England to a rare series win in India.
A desperate Kohli, needing a breakthrough, brought back Nehra, who duly responded, removing Stokes with a slower fuller delivery on middle stump that the left-hander missed and was adjudged leg before wicket.
The pressure oscillated towards the English batsmen despite Root anchoring one end. But they needed 24 runs from 12 balls and urgently needed boundaries.
In the last over, the hosts failed to press the accelerator, only managing five runs, losing three wickets in the process.
For England, Jordan scalped 3 wicket for 22 runs to be the most successful while Mills, Ali and Rashid chipped in with a wicket each.