Battering by Buttler seals win for England

JOS Buttler’s brutal hitting trumped the genius of Virat Kohli in England’s eight-wicket defeat of India in the third Twenty20 in Ahmedabad.

Buttler muscled an unbeaten 83 from 52 balls to help England to their target of 157 with 10 balls to spare.

That was still closer than the contest could have been when India found themselves 24-3 after six overs and 87-5 from 15.

They were kept in it by captain Kohli, whose thrilling 77 not out from 46 balls illuminated a stadium left empty by the decision to play the last three matches of the series behind closed doors.

On the day captain Eoin Morgan became the first man to reach 100 T20 caps for England, his side moved 2-1 up with two matches to play and can seal the series tomorrow.

Just as in the first two matches, when victories were traded, the side that won the toss won this game. England’s fast bowlers also repeated their superb display from the series opener, hitting the India batsmen with a barrage of short bowling on a two-paced surface.

The fit-again Mark Wood was particularly impressive, his figures of 3-31 only damaged when he took the brunt of Kohli’s late assault.

With Kohli reversing the momentum and lifting India to a competitive total, England could have been pressured in the chase, but any notion of difficulty was quickly removed by Buttler, who got into his stride by hitting two huge sixes over long-on in the same Yuzvendra Chahal over.