England keep series alive as Indian batters fall flat to visitor’s top-notch show

India should have chased down the target but the batters could only manage 145/9 in 20 overs. India still lead the series 2-1 with the fourth game scheduled in Pune on January 31

Rajkot: Indian batters faltered against an incisive England bowling attack as the visitors raised their game in a must-win scenario to win the third T20I by 26 runs and keep the five-match series alive here on Tuesday.

Mohammed Shami made a solid comeback to international cricket after 14 months but it was Varun Chakravarthy’s bowling effort that stood out as his five-wicket haul helped India limit England to 171/9.

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India should have chased down the target but the batters could only manage 145/9 in 20 overs. India still lead the series 2-1 with the fourth game scheduled in Pune on January 31.

While express pace combine of Jofra Archer and Mark Wood did the job in the powerplay, Adil Rashid applied the choke in the middle overs with a skillful display of leg-spin. Unsettled by the extra pace of Archer in the first two games, Sanju Samson (3 off 6) fell to the England pacer once again while trying to hit a short-of-length ball out of the park.

His opening partner Abhishek Sharma (24 off 14) played some crisp shots before falling to Brydon Carse. Suryakumar Yadav (14 off 7) started with a trademark pick up shot off Archer that went all the way but a similar shot attempted off Wood brought about his downfall, extending his lean run. The turning point of India’s innings was the dismissal of Tilak Varma (18 off 14) who had returned not out in his last four outings including two hundreds and a half-century.

It took a special ball from Rashid to send back Varma as the leg-spinner got one to turn sharply from outside the off-stump and crash into the middle stump. Hardik Pandya (40 off 35) took the game deep but was not able to take his team over the line. Earlier, England lost their way after a whirlwind fifty from Ben Duckett (51 off 28) as the in-form Chakravarthy ran through the opposition batting on a flat track.

From 83 for one, England slipped to 127 for eight before Liam Livingstone (43 off 24) went on a six-hitting spree to end the innings on a high. Chakravarthy completed his second five-wicket haul in T20s when he bowled Jofra Archer with a googly.