Manchester : An expensive over from Ravi Bishnoi overshadowed 15-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi’s much-awaited international debut as England beat India by four wickets in the second T20 International on Saturday to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.
Chasing the target of 191 runs in Manchester, England achieved the target for six wickets with one over remaining. The turning point of the match proved to be the 17th over, in which Ravi Bishnoi gave away 29 runs. He started the over with two consecutive no-balls and after this, Jacob Bethel hit three brilliant sixes and completely put the match in England’s bag. Bethal played the match-winning innings of 76 not out off 46 balls.
The day started with excitement over the debut of 15-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi, but ended with the explosive batting of 22-year-old Jacob Bethel. England had a very bad start. Arshdeep Singh (3 wickets for 40 runs) gave a great start to India by dismissing Phil Salt and Jos Buttler without opening the account. Captain Harry Brook batted aggressively and scored 39 runs in 15 balls. He scored 27 runs in one over of Arshdeep with the help of three sixes and two fours and reduced the pressure to a great extent. Akshar Patel (1 wicket for 20 runs) brought relief to India by getting Harry Brook caught by wicketkeeper Ishan Kishan, but by then England was in a strong position.
After this, Bethel and Tom Banton did not allow the Indian spin attack to be effective by making a partnership of 67 runs for the fourth wicket. Banton scored 39 runs in 32 balls. Only Akshar could make an impact among the Indian spinners. In contrast, Bishnoi conceded 60 runs in four overs, while Varun Chakraborty took one wicket for 37 runs in four overs. England’s batsmen took full advantage of the relatively fast bowling of both the spinners. Captain Shreyas Iyer’s decision to bring Arshdeep Singh back to bowl in the 13th over was successful. Arshdeep raised India’s hopes by dismissing Banton, but Bishnoi’s costly over dashed the team’s hopes of victory. Earlier, batting first, India scored 190 runs for seven wickets. In the last over of the innings, Tilak Verma played a quick inning of 24 runs unbeaten in 11 balls and scored 17 runs from Joffra Archer’s over and took the team to a respectable score. All eyes were on 15-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi, who made his international debut and broke 37-year-old Sachin Tendulkar’s record of becoming the youngest player to play for India. His first innings, however, did not last long. He scored 14 runs in 10 balls with the help of two sixes, but was stumped by Jos Buttler while attempting to play forward on the off-spin of Will Jacques. Abhishek Sharma scored 43 runs in 24 balls, Iyer scored 37 runs in 22 balls and Kishan scored 49 runs in 43 balls, but all three batsmen did not look completely comfortable.
Kishan, in particular, struggled to read the slower balls and changes in pace from the spinners. For England, Jofra Archer’s pace and extra bounce troubled the Indian batsmen early on, while Sam Curran kept the pressure on in the middle overs with his variation of pace and slower balls. Curan took three wickets for 33 runs in four overs. Will Jacques took one wicket for 22 runs in three overs, while left-arm spinner Liam Dawson took one wicket for 27 runs in three overs. Adil Rashid was also economical and gave only 21 runs in two overs. Abhishek Sharma initially struggled against Archer’s pace and missed the ball almost 10 times in his first 12 balls. Later he regained his rhythm, but his powerful flick on Curan’s full toss went straight into the hands of Banton standing at midwicket. Iyer and Kishan managed the innings by making a partnership of 65 runs for the third wicket, but due to the big boundaries of the Old Trafford ground and the disciplined bowling attack of England, the Indian batsmen could not score runs freely.
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