Nottingham: Indian batters produced one of their worst performance in recent times, surrendering meekly to England’s tearaway quicks Jofra Archer and Josh Tongue’s hostile spells in a record 125-run loss in the third T20 International here.
Archer (3/29 in 3 overs) and Tongue (4/28 in 4 overs) bowled with a lot of fire inside the Powerplay, which led to India being shot out for 76 runs in 11.4 overs in pursuit of 202 Tuesday.
This was India’s worst T20I defeat in terms of margin of runs as only four batters managed double-digit scores here.
The win gave England an unassailable 2-0 lead in the five-match series as the first match was abandoned due to rain.
Captain Shreyas Iyer’s winless streak has now extended to five games, and this Indian team under Gautam Gambhir’s stewardship looks a disjointed unit.
It wasn’t a pretty sight as birthday boy Mahendra Singh Dhoni watched his favourite team get dismantled one over at a time.
England’s 201 for 7 was largely based on opener Phil Salt’s 70 and Sam Curran’s unbeaten 41 in a late assault.
The match as a contest was over once India were reduced to 52 for 5 in five overs. The performance was marked by poor shot selection and an apparent lack of will to fight.
Add to it the baffling tactical calls. A hit-and-miss slogger like Harshit Rana was sent No. 7 inside the Powerplay ahead of Shivam Dube, something that is bound to raise eyebrows.
The 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi once again hit a couple of sixes — one each off Archer and Tongue –, but his 13-run knock ended in just five deliveries.
A sharp bouncer directed on his right shoulder saw the teenager go for a hook, but it ended in Jos Buttler’s gloves.
Before Sooryavanshi’s dismissal, Abhishek Sharma was holed out at the deep extra cover, an area where he has been dismissed a few times.
Ishan Kishan hooked one for a six but was out in no time, while Iyer tried to flick Archer and picked the only fielder behind square. Axar Patel expected a short ball and got a fuller length to edge one behind stumps.
Earlier, Salt overcame initial jitters to smash his way to a 44-ball-70 as England posted a competitive 201 for 7, which proved to be enough in the end.
The Indian pace unit put up a reasonably impressive show with the Delhi duo of Rana (2/40 in 4 overs) and Prince Yadav (2/30 in 4 overs) picking up wickets at crucial junctures, but same couldn’t be said about veteran spinners Axar (1/49 in 4 overs) and Varun Chakravarthy (0/35 in 3 overs).
All-rounder Curran (41 no off 24 balls) used the long handle to good effect to take England past the 200-run mark. The last 8 overs yielded 89 runs.
Arshdeep Singh bowled an impressive maiden over to Salt first up, but India also lost a DRS review. While Salt looked scratchy, Buttler (36 off 21 balls) was quick to get off the blocks as he got a flurry of boundaries and sixes off Rana and Axar before Prince bowled a perfect yorker first up to castle the veteran.
Harry Brook (16) hit a lofted punch over covers off Prince, but the bowler had the last laugh when he mis-timed a pull-shot and Abhishek Sharma took a well-judged catch at deep mid-wicket boundary.
Once Brook was out, Salt finally picked up the momentum, getting a six off Chakravarthy.
Salt also took Axar to the cleaners as the stand with Jacob Bethell (13) got them 40 runs in just 3.3 overs before Rana removed the latter and Tom Banton off successive balls.
Having struggled in the powerplay, Salt started getting his share of boundaries as he reached 50 off 36 balls, which was slow by his high standards.
Once he reached his half-century, Salt played a pick-up pull to dispatch Arshdeep over deep square leg fence and then flicked him for good measure to get a boundary.
In all, he hit seven fours and three sixes, and Axar removed him just when he was lining up for a final flourish.
But Curran smashed Harshit and Axar to get England to a respectable score.
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