The India vs. England T20 series has been riveting to watch. As India had won the first T20 and England came back and won the second T20 so at 1-1 the third T20 match was going to be the decider which was a treat for all the fans in Bristol who came to watch.
This decider didn’t disappoint at all as England were batting in this match and they were of too a flying start. Roy and Buttler gave England the dream start they would have wanted. Roy and Buttler really took the game away from India during the power play, They really went after the Indian bowlers and they had no response at the time. Pandya had gone for 22 runs in his first over but he learned from his mistake and came back stronger he was now giving England a tough time.
England had lost two wickets but the runs were flowing and were building up for England, and India were in for a challenge in this game. Roy, Buttler, Hales and Bairstow were the ones who scored the runs for England in this match. With Roy’s 67 runs being a vital contribution and Bairstow’s down the order nabbing those 25 runs did definitely add to England’s total and put India under pressure.
England ended on a total off 199 runs and they had done well against an inexperienced Indian bowling attack, and England would have been feeling confident at the time as they had the runs on the board and they had also won the previous T20 match and momentum was firmly on their side.
India were batting now Sharma and Dhawan to open the innings for India. Rohit has been through a lean patch. He really came into his own in this match he started off cautiously, but found his feet in no time. A player of his calibre cannot be kept quiet for long and this was the point in case in this match.
Dhawan and KL Rahul got mini starts but were out in no time. Sharma and the captain Kohli built a partnership things were slow for India in the first 10 overs. It looked like the game was going to be in England’s favour but things began to turn around, little by little India gained momentum in the game.
England got the wicket of Kohli, but Sharma continued and made sure the scoreboard was ticking over. His partnership with Pandya proved to be very successful and they scored quick fire runs which was much needed for India. Sharma ended up scoring a century for India and it was truly well deserved. Pandya with his 33 runs of 14 balls was very handy. He is proving himself to be quite the all-rounder for India.
India won the match by 7 wickets with 8 balls remaining.
Post match commentary (cricinfo.com)
Presentation time…the Man of the Match and Man of the Series is Rohit Sharma “That’s the style of my play, assessing the conditions was important. We knew the wicket would be nice to play on. I was trying to hold the shape when playing the big shots. I like to be calm, not to panic too much, because once you are there you can make up the scoring. With the wicket being so good I just knew I had to stay there. [Pandya] is a fearless individual and that’s what the team want him to do.
Eoin Morgan “We had a tremendous start with the bat and we didn’t do ourselves justice…20 or 30 short. Our execution of shots wasn’t there. Picking the right ball to hit is something we’ll have to work on. India bowled, but on a small ground we’d have expected to score more than that. Thought we’d have to do something special with the ball and it’s hard to defend on a ground like this. Hopefully we can learn as we go along. This series has produced three completely performances for us. We learn and hopefully improve.”
Virat Kohli “I think the comeback from the bowlers was outstanding, we thought they would get 225-230. The character they showed is something we are really proud of. As captain, very happy to see that. We had the quality to bowl those wicket-taking deliveries. We applied pressure and pulled the game back. [Pandya] is a really good all-round cricketer, very confident, and the way he picked up those wickets is what you want to see in younger guys. Then he delivers with the bat, Rohit was obviously very special but Hardik was standout. The pitch was really flat, we enjoyed ourselves as batsmen. I think it was a brutal day for the bowlers. We backed up something and the guys produced the goods for us. We will continue to try different things in the batting order and the bowlers. The guys are taking this as an opportunity. Great to start with a series win.”
Kohli goes and collects the trophy and celebrates with his team. They full deserve their series win, two very convincing performances either side of the defeat. On that note, we’ll leave things there for today. The one-day series starts on Thursday at Trent Bridge (that could be a mountain of runs!) and we’ll be back to bring you all the action. For now, though, it’s goodbye from Alan and Gnasher. Thanks for joining us today.