ENGLAND’S CRAZY COLLAPSE
England captain Eoin Morgan condemned but could not explain his side’s batting collapse in Bangalore after India wrapped up the Twenty20 series with a 75run rout.
The rivals have traded blows throughout the two limited-overs series, but England faltered woefully in the final round, losing eight wickets for eight runs in one of T 20 cricket’ s most comprehensive capitulations.
At 119-2 chasing 203, England were marginal underdogs, relying on Morgan (40) and Joe Root (42) to produce something special and seal a 2-1 series win.
But just 19 deliveries later they were shaking hands in a daze, having been ruthlessly routed for 127 by Yuzvendra Chalal, whose 6-25 is the third-best return in T20 history, and Jasprit Bumrah (3-14).
Morgan, wearing the shallow gaze of a punch-drunk boxer, tried to put his side’s travails into words but, like them, came up short.
“It hurts, it does. We weren’t good enough,” he said. “I can’t put my finger on it it...we haven’t produced a batting performance as bad as that in two, two-and-a-half years.
“We pride ourselves on our batting, it’s been our strong suit for some time, and tonight it wasn’t anywhere near what it should be.
“It’s very disappointing. For maybe 60 per cent of the game we were competitive and right in amongst it, but fell away terribly towards the end.”
There were five ducks in the England innings, and just as many ill-judged shots, but Morgan felt the game pivoted on the dismissals of him and Root.
Despite scoring almost two-thirds of the team’s total, the pair fell to successive Chalal deliveries while fully settled at the crease - a vignette that turned the tide emphatically in India’s favour.
“We committed a cardinal sin of losing two ‘in’ players in one over. That allowed India to build up pressure, and we weren’t up to it at all,” he said.
“With eight wickets in the shed, a better performance by me or Joe, a 70 or 80, would have made a huge difference.
“But I’ll take my hat off to India, it was a performance worthy of winning the series.”
England coach Trevor Bayliss feels his side gave a poor account of themselves on the day, a noticeable trend in series deciders or tournament finals dating back to the 2013 Champions Trophy, but hopes they will be better for the chastening experience.
“The way we finished is certainly not an indication of the way we played on this tour - so it’s a little bit disappointing from that point of view,” he told Sky Sports.
“They’ve got a couple of good spinners, and we’re probably not quite worldclass players of spin as yet. I’d like to see our guys probably use their feet and go down the wicket as well trying to sweep.
“I’ve felt a few times we’re out playing across the line a little...but that’s a learning process. We’ll put it down to experience, and hope they’ll be in a better place next time we tour here.”
Where England shrunk at the decisive moment, India put in arguably their most complete display of the limited-overs leg to complete a clean sweep across Tests, ODIs and T20s.
“The occasion demanded us to be at our very best,” said captain Virat Kohli. “We lost all three tosses, similar to the Test series as well, and we’ve won all three series.
“It’s a memorable series win for us, the whole tour is. It’s been a brilliant couple of months for the Indian team.
“Going forward, we know exactly what to do in each format.”