Indian spinners dominate to restrict England to 165/9 in 2nd T20I in Chennai

India vice-captain Axar Patel (2/32) was the beneficiary of England batters' adventurous intentions

Chennai: Jos Buttler showed semblance of fight but other English batters didn’t follow skipper’s suit while succumbing to Indian spinners, as the visitors were restricted to an underwhelming 165/9 in the second T20I here on Saturday.

Buttler (45, 30b, 2×4, 3×6) played some delectable shots, including a sequence of 4, 6, 4 off pacer Arshdeep Singh, who got rid of Phil Salt in the first over itself. Salt pulled the left-arm pacer, who was earlier on the day named the ICC Men’s T20 Player of the Year, but could not find the distance to get caught by Washington Sundar, who replaced injured Nitish Kumar Reddy in the XI, near the square leg boundary.

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Washington had a moment of success for himself when Ben Duckett’s reverse off him fell easily into the hands of Dhruv Jurel, who came in for injured Rinku Singh. However, the pull shot continued to haunt the English batters for the rest of the night as Buttler and later Liam Livingstone perished playing that shot.

India vice-captain Axar Patel (2/32) was the beneficiary of England batters’ adventurous intentions. The left-arm spinner bowled into the pitch and the inherent grip on the surface did not allow the batters to impart force and direction to their shots.

Buttler, whose aggression helped England to reach 58 for two in the Power Play overs, was caught by Tilak Varma, while Livingstone ended in the hands of substitute Harshit Rana. All-rounder Brydon Carse, who came in for Gus Atkinson, used the long handle to good effect, making 31 off 17 balls including three sixes but a moment of misunderstanding with Jofra Archer snapped his promising knock.

But the highlight of the England innings was the dismissal of Harry Brook, who began well, smashing a six off spinner Varun Chakravarthy (2/38).

But soon a back-of-the-hand delivery breached Brook’s defence to rattle his off-stump, as the English right-hander could not read it despite Chennai not having any smog. A couple of beefy blows by lower-order batters helped England go past the 150-run mark but they will be left pondering their approach against the Indian spinners.

Brief Scores: England: 165 for 9 in 20 overs (Jos Buttler 45, Brydon Carse 31; Axar Patel 2/32, Washington Sundar 1/9, Varun Chakravarthy 2/38) vs India.