Rajkot, Jan 29: England beat India by 26 runs in the third T20 International here on Tuesday, but still trail the five-match series 1-2.
Chasing a target of 172, India ended at 145 for 9 in 20 overs with Hardik Pandya top-scoring with 40 off 35 balls.
For England, Jamie Overton (3/23) took three wickets while Jofra Archer (2/33) and Brydon Carse (2/28) got two apiece. Earlier, Varun Chakravarthy was all over England with splendid figures of 4-0-24-5 as the visitors could only manage 171/9.
The right-arm spinner Chakravarthy accounted for Jos Buttler (24), Jamie Smith (6), Jamie Overton (0), Brydon Carse (3) and Jofra Archer (0) to record his second five-for in the shortest format.
England, who lost wickets in a cluster, were cruising at 83 for one in the ninth over but slipped to 127 for eight after 16 overs.
For England, Ben Duckett (51 off 28 balls; 7x4s, 2x6s) provided fireworks at the top, while Liam Livingstone’s 24-ball 43 with five sixes and a four pushed them past the 150-mark.
India skipper Suryakumar Yadav admitted his team failed to mop up the England tail after having the visitors on the mat and credited “world-class” spinner Adil Rashid for making life difficult for his batters during their 26-run loss.
I felt there would be a little dew later in the day. I feel we had the game in our hands when Hardik and Axar were batting. Credit goes to Adil Rashid, he bowled really well. That’s why he is a world-class bowler. He didn’t allow us to rotate the strike, Suryakumar said during the post-match presentation.
“I feel you always learn something from a T20 game. I felt when we were bowling around 127/8 to 170, I think that was too much at the end. We’ve got to learn from the batting point of view. Got to go back to the drawing board and learn from our mistakes.”
England captain Jos Buttler also addressed the issue of losing wickets in clusters but credited his tail-enders for pushing the total in the end and the bowlers for delivering when it mattered the most.
“The guys bowled really well, it was nice to show off their skills. Not about how fast they can bowl, but how well they can adapt to the wicket,” Buttler said.