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 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.
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 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.
While Ravi Bishnoi (4/46 in 4 overs) and Washington Sundar (0/15 in 1) proved expensive, Chakravarthy (5/24 in four), Hardik (33/2 in 4) and Axar Patel (1/19 in 3) kept things tight from their end.
Shami (0/25 in 3) did not set the stage on first but it was important that he had an incident free outing
After being put in to bat, England made a promising start by coasting to 52/1.
England have struggled against the Indian spinners in the series but Duckett overcame that challenge with some audacious strokeplay on way to his second T20 fifty. He danced down the track, employed the scoop and reverse hits to unsettle the opposition attack.
He was the aggressor in his 76-run stand with skipper Jos Buttler (24 off 22) but the duo fell in quick succession to lose the momentum in the middle overs. Among the shots Duckett pulled off included a scoop over the keeper’s head off Shami’s second over.
When Shami marked his run up before toss, it was confirmed that he would be playing his first international since the ODI World Cup final in November 2023.
On a flat track, Shami, who replaced Arshdeep Singh as the sole specialist pacer in the playing eleven, was tasked with bowling the opening over of the match.
He induced a couple of play and misses in his opening spell that read 0/15 in two overs. Shami returned to bowl the 19th over which went for 11 runs, capping off an incident free outing.
He bowled balls close to 140kmph and got the ball to shape away, allaying concerns over his fitness.
At 83 for one, England were on course for 200 with Duckett going all guns blazing and deep batting line-up to follow.
However, the momentum shifted India’s way when Chakravarthy had Buttler caught behind with the latter getting a faint tickle attempting a reverse sweep.
Duck was holed out at deep mid-wicket in the following over from Axar, leaving England at 87 for three at the halfway mark.
Chakravarthy removed Jamie Smith and Jamie Overton off successive balls in the 14th over to make matters worse for England.
PTI
