Chennai: Tilak Varma’s fifty of uncommon brilliance helped India survive a top-order meltdown in opposition to England pacers and register a two-wicket win within the second T20I and take a 2-0 lead within the five-match sequence right here on Saturday.
Tilak (72 not out, 55b, 4×4, 5×6) cleverly used the acute tempo of English bowlers to amass runs, and singlehandedly took India previous the goal, because the hosts completed the evening at 166 for eight. It was a mini traditional as a result of the left-hander hardly had fixed help from the opposite finish and the England bow-lers have been cock-a-hoop lot after making severe inroads.
Pacer Jofra Archer was his pet hunt of the evening, slamming the Sussex man for a complete of 4 sixes, the fourth one taking him previous his fifty, as he leaked 60 runs in 4 overs for the wicket of Sanju Samson.
The left-hander’s inside the road six off pacer Brydon Carse over deep superb leg (3/29) too was extremely spectacular. However India needed to stroll by the panic room earlier than Tilak’s solidity carried them house.
The in-form Abhishek Sharma obtained India off the block in a blistering style, carting Archer for 3 boundaries within the very first over. However a 148 kmph nip-backer by pacer Mark Wooden pinged him on the again foot and even the DRS, which was taken extra in hope than in any actual conviction, couldn’t save him.
The dismissal had India at a barely shaky 15 for one which quickly was a extra regarding 19 for 2 together with the wicket of Samson. The nerves have been eased when skipper Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak added 39 fast runs for the third wicket to take their facet to 58, however the former dragged Carse on to his stumps to offer England an open-ing. From 58 for 3, the English pacers crashed by that creek to bag the wickets of Dhruv Jurel and Hardik Pandya to cut back India to 78 for 5. However Washington Sundar, who was dropped on 10 by Adil Rashid at mid-on off Wooden, cashed in on that reprieve, hammering the Durham man for a six and two fours in succession to carry down the mount-ing asking fee.
Nonetheless, Washington’s try and run a 140 kmph thunderbolt from Carse to the third man noticed the ball crashing onto his stumps. India have been 116 for six then. However they discovered a keen soldier in Tilak. Earlier, Jos Buttler confirmed semblance of combat however different English batters didn’t observe the skipper’s go well with whereas succumbing to Indian spinners. Buttler (45, 30b, 2×4, 3×6) performed some delectable photographs, includ-ing a sequence of 4, 6, 4 off pacer Arshdeep Singh, who removed Phil Salt within the first over itself.
Temporary Scores:
England: 165 for 9 in 20 overs (Jos Buttler 45, Brydon Carse 31; Axar Patel 2/32, Washington Sundar 1/9, Varun Chakravarthy 2/38) misplaced to India: 166 for 8 in 19.2 overs (Tilak Varma 72 not out; Brydon Carse 3/29) by 2 wickets.
