Second T20I: Lifted by fresh faces, India thump England by 7 wickets

With each passing game, we are nearing a point where winning the toss is becoming synonymous with winning a T20 game. Since 2018, India have now won 19 of the 24 T20Is where they have chased. A success rate of an unprecedented 82.6%. England have this proportion in excess of 70% themselves.

In the first T20I, it was India who succumbed to relentless pace from England. In the second, the guile of India’s seamers restricted England to a subpar total. India chased down 165 with three wickets down and 13 balls to spare. As easy as it gets.

But, in the midst of all this was a wave of fresh air. After what transpired in the first game, there was some change needed in India’s approach in the format. Taking a pragmatic call, India chose to infuse the freedom of expression in the side by including players to whom this comes naturally.

With a 32-ball 56, Ishan Kishan made a sizzling start to his T20I career. Moreover, he gave the Indian think tank another headache for when they choose to play Rohit Sharma again.

A tug of war to begin with

Bhuvneshwar Kumar swung the new ball and rocked England early. He dismissed Jos Buttler in the first over for a golden duck. Buttler committed the fatal error of shuffling but failing to connect a ball heading to his stumps. 

In the first T20I, Washington Sundar dismissed Jason Roy off the first ball he bowled. Roy tried to nudge him for one then. Tonight, Roy opted for what works for him better. Never mind the fielder at long-on, he cleared him with ease. Sundar bowled flat and at a higher pace after that.

Coming straight on after the Powerplay, Yuzvendra Chahal had a plan for Roy. Keep them far and away from his reach. And it was a solid plan. Roy tried everything, including numerous reverse sweeps but could not get bat to the ball turning away. Roy thumped the only bowl in that over that was short and straight over the leg side fence.

To Dawid Malan in the next over, ninth of the innings, Chahal bowled straight. He missed a sweep and was LBW after a review. By then Roy gauged the execution needed for a reverse sweep to what were predictable areas by then and thus collected two fours in the over. Roy played a false shot to five of the 11 balls he faced against Chahal. But, he did finish with 16 runs off him without getting dismissed.

It was Sundar who made Roy miss a fifty yet again. This time tempting him to use the spin to hit one to the leg side fence. Roy did not make the needed connection and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, running from deep fine, obliged.

The 13th over of the innings told the story of the unfair nature of the sport for the bowler, Shardul Thakur in this case. The ball reached the boundary three times. Once through an inside edge, one after Shreyas Iyer overran it at deep cover. The last one was off the helmet of Eoin Morgan who missed a bouncer.

Fielding at deep-square, Suryakumar Yadav dropped and almost dropped Jonny Bairstow in the 14th over. A couple of feet inside the ropes, he failed to hold on a flat hit that went over the ropes. A delivery three balls later, bowled slower and wider outside off by Sundar, Bairstow mistimed a slog sweep. Yadav ran in to catch the skier, juggled once but ensured keeping the ball inside his palms. England scored 85 runs in overs 9-15 but lost three more wickets after losing Buttler early on.

India choked England at the death

Learning from England in the first game, India's pacers knew the value of bowling at good or back of lengths. While they lacked the pace of England's fast-men, India's pacers used slower balls to good effect. Bhuvneshwar mixed them with his accurate yorkers and Hardik Pandya blended them with proper bouncers. Shardul Thakur was happy with all six balls in the 18th over being slower ones. He bowled the first of those wide off Eoin Morgan. It foxed England's captain who failed to pull out of a shot and skied it to Rishabh Pant.

Thakur finished off with keeping Ben Stokes and Sam Curran puzzled in the last over as well. Making a comeback, Hardik Pandya bowled well. A little more help from the fielder at mid-off, Thakur in his second over and a little less show of frustration from Virat Kohli in his third could have reduced four runs from his bowling figures. 

All in all Indian bowlers executed the art of being consistently inconsistent well throughout the day and bettered it in the death overs. They gave away only 35 runs in the last five overs. 

The Ishan Kishan show

The count of a wicket-maiden featuring KL Rahul became two in two games. Sam Curran began with five balls, all at Rahul's stumps and most of them moving in. The last one was wider for Rahul to have a feel but only for an outside edge to the keeper.

But then was the time for a debutant special. Ishan Kishan started his international career with a flick against Jofra Archer to the fine-leg fence. He pulled Sam Curran for another four in the next over.

Replacing Mark Wood who sat out due to a niggle, Tom Curran was a drop in pace and intimidation. The first ball he bowled was in the arc and Kishan had no second thoughts before smashing it over long-on. The third ball of the over was a slower one but it was short too. Kishan flat batted it and the ball travelled in a blink of an eye to the long-off fence. A swivel and a pull earned him another boundary to end the Powerplay. India scored 50 runs in the field restrictions, 28 of those came in the last two overs. A batsman with a carefree attitude altered India's batting approach with immediate effect.

Along with Kohli, Kishan took the aggression up a notch after the Powerplay. An innings of a 21-ball 24 from Ben Stokes at the death washed off England's efforts earlier. With the ball, an overstepping by him gave India a free-hit. A top-edge from Kohli flew over the third man fence. Kishan was fierce on short balls in the Powerplay. He did the same to the one Stokes bowled, pulling it for a six to make it a 17-run over.

To make it a night to forget on all fronts, Stokes dropped a sitter at long-on of Kishan in the next over.

Kishan fancied Rashid all night. The dropped chance did not pin him down. He smashed the first two balls of the 10th over for two sixes to reach his fifty. One over deep-midwicket and the other down the ground. He scored 21 runs off the 10 balls he faced against Rashid. A missed reverse sweep off a flipper ended Kishan match-defining knock in the end. But, he had done enough to make the chase a cakewalk for others.

Kohli saw it through

India’s skipper spent much of the innings enjoying Kishan's strokeplay from the other end or with a hand around Pant's shoulders providing his approval of every aggressive stroke that Pant played. 

In a breezy 13-ball 26, Pant picked up from where Kishan left. The most eye-catching of his strokes came off Chris Jordon in the 14th over. As Jordon tried to bowl full and outside, Pant used his hands to hammer the ball, hitting a four and six to the right of long-off on consecutive balls. One thing that this pitch did not encourage was cheeky strokes. Multiple English batsmen missed reverse sweeps and reverse scoops. Wanting to use the pace to execute a flick, Pant skied the next ball to deep midwicket.

Amid all the power-hitting, Kohli built his innings in the usual fashion. Before nailing an Archer bouncer to the legside fence in the fourth over, he ensured to get his eye in with a few dabs on either side of the wicket. He rode his luck too after Jos Buttler failed to collect a fine glance on the first ball of the fifth over. 

Without breaking a sweat, Kohli neared a fifty himself. He raised it with a characteristic shimmy down the track to Tom Curran for a six to the site screen. Kishan said after the game that the plan was to target particular bowlers. Tom Curran was in India’s sight tonight. They scored 26 runs off his two overs. 

With 22 runs needed in the last five, there was not much contest left. But, it allowed Kohli to celebrate coming back into a form of sorts with his trademark whips. The four off Jordan to bring the target down to five was authoritative, the six to finish the game in the next ball was dismissive. Kohli saw India through being 73* off 49 balls. But England had lost the match quite a while back. Probably when they lost the toss.