A remarkable century from Suryakumar Yadav was not enough to propel India to a victory in the third and final T20I of the series against England on July 10. The hosts earned a victory to finish the series 2-1 down after posting a gigantic score of 215/7 versus a visiting side short of their incumbents.
India rested multiple of their regular bowling stars, including the entire trio of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah and Yuzvendra Chahal, and premier fast-bowling allrounder Hardik Pandya. It meant an opportunity for the likes of Avesh Khan, Umran Malik, Ravi Bishnoi and pressure on Ravindra Jadeja to bowl his entire quota of four overs.
The team management wanted to trial the bench strength and see how their second line of players respond to the pressure of bowling to a lengthy England batting unit on a flat batting surface in Nottingham.
Disappointingly for the think-tank, they didn’t fare well in their rare chance in the middle, with the tourists conceding close to 11 an over with the ball. Their new-ball pair of Avesh (1/43) and Malik (1/56) were taken for a plenty, which meant the second line of the attack had to do the heavier loading than they would’ve ideally had to.
Harshal Patel (2/35) and young wristspinner Ravi Bishnoi (2/30) still copped well. But Jadeja, feeling the absence of the cushion provided by Hardik in co-sharing fifth bowler’s duty, was hammered for 0 for 45 in his quota.
With no Bumrah-Bhuvneshwar duo at the top and Chahal in the middle to trouble them, England relished their time at the crease, dominating India’s fringe bowlers. Jason Roy (27) and Jos Buttler (18) got starts but couldn’t convert.
However, Dawid Malan (77) and Liam Livingstone (42*) played the substantial hands the home team needed to secure a total in excess of 200. The duo shared an excellent fourth-wicket stand of 84 runs and ruffled the Indian feathers quite a lot.
It showed when they came out to bat in the second half. Needing to hit the accelerator mode on right from the beginning chasing 216, the visitors had Rohit Sharma (11), Rishabh Pant (1) and Virat Kohli (11) losing their wickets inside the powerplay overs. The trio tried to take the game back to England and give India a quickfire start, but they failed in their attempt.
Someone who didn’t fail on the evening, however, was the incredibly skilful Suryakumar Yadav, who blazed his willow to a memorable hundred. The elegant but unorthodox right-hander smashed his way to a 117 off 55 deliveries, featuring 14 fours and six sixes.
His innings was a remarkable exhibition of the batter’s range and rise as an indispensable cog in India’s white-ball wheels. In the process, he also became only the fifth Indian male to bag a T20I century to his name.
SKY tried to resurrect the Indian innings with a stand of 119 runs with Shreyas Iyer. It was, let’s be honest, perhaps the most one-sided partnership in recent times for India as the latter looked nowhere near as good with the bat throughout his painstaking and match-losing 28 off 23 balls. In a run-chase where India needed well above 11 an over, Shreyas went at less than eight and got out to the short ball again.
It may be unfair to blame the Indian loss on his batting effort after such a poor outing with the ball, but had Iyer made, say 38 off 23 instead of 28, the task for Kumar and the rest would’ve become a touch easier. That didn’t happen, and it meant the likes of Dinesh Karthik (6) and Jadeja had to immediately go after the bowling. Soon, Suryakumar also fell to the need for excessive risk-taking, and that effectively ended the Indian run-chase.
England chipped in with wickets at regular intervals, but they had their fair share of expensive spells, too, which made Reece Topley’s three for 22 off four overs a terrific outing in the overall context of the game.
Brief scores
England 215/7 in 20 overs (Malan 77, Livingstone 42*; Bishnoi 2/30) beat India 198/9 in 20 overs (Yadav 117; Topley 3/22, Jordan 2/37) by 17 runs
