England claimed a 26-run victory over India in the third T20I on Tuesday, January 28 at the Niranjan Shah Stadium, Rajkot in a must-win scenario to keep the five-match series alive. (Full Coverage | More Cricket News)
Asked to set ♚the target first, England posted an achievable total of 171/9 in 20 overs. The innings was anchored by Ben Duckett, whose 51 runs off 28 balls remained the highest score by a batter in the game.
Liam Livingstone also played a brisk knock (43 off 24) to support the effort. However, India’s crafty spinner Varun Chakravarthy emerged as the standout performer with the ball. His magical spell of 5/24 dismantled England's lowꦍer order, leaving the batters struggling and halting their momentum at crucial stages.
India should have chased down the targ🍎et but the batters could only manage 145/9 in 20 overs.
The chase never gained any real momentuꦛm, as England's di🍎sciplined bowling kept the hosts on the backfoot.
Early wickets were the key for the visitors, with Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma, and Tilak Varma all dismissed in the powerplay.
While express pace combine of Jofra Archer and Mark Wood did the job in the powerplay, Adil Rashid applied the choke in the middle overs with a skillful display of leg-s♏pin.
Unsettled by the extra pace of Archer in the first two games, Samson (3 off 6) fell to the England pacer once again while trying to hit a shor🅠t of length ball out of the park.
His openi💫ng partner Abhishek Sharma (24 off 14) played some crisp shots before falling to Brydon Carse.
Suryakumar Yadav (14 off 7) started with a trademark pick u🦄p shot off Archer that went all the way but a similar shot attempted off Wood brought about his downfall, extending his lean ru♛n.
The turning point of India's innings was the dismissal of Tilak Varma (18 off 14) who had returned not out in his last four outings includi🔥ng two hundreds and a half-century.
It♉ took a special ball from Rashid 🌜to send back Varma as the leg-spinner got one to turn sharply from outside the off-stump and crash into the middle stump.
Hardik Pandya (40 off 35) took th🧜e game deep but was not able to tak💞e his team over the line.
Earlier, England lost their way after a whirlwind fifty from Ben Duckett (51 off 28) as the in-form Chakravarthy ran through the op🐬position batting on a flat track.
From 83 for one, England sliꦅpped to 127 for eight before Liam Livingstone (43 off 24) went on a six-hitting spree to end the innings on a high.
Chakravarthy completed his second five-wicket haul in T20s when he bowled Jofra Arch🔜er with a 🅠googly.
While Ravi Bishnoi (4/46 in 4 overs) a♔nd Washington Sundar (0/15 in 1) proved expensive,♕ Chakravarthy (5/24 in four), Hardik (33/2 in 4) and Axar Patel (1/19 in 3) kept things tight from their end.
Shami (0/25 in🦄 3) did not set the stage on first but it was important 💖that he had an incident free outing
After being put in ♔to bat, England made a promising start by coasting to ཧ52/1.
England have struggled against the Indian spinners in the series but Duckett overcame that challenge with some auda🎃cious strokeplay on way to his second T20 fifty. He danced down the track, employed the scoop and reverse hits to unsettle the opposition attack.
He was the aggressor in his 76-run stand with skipper Jos Buttler (24 off 22) but the duo fell in quick succession to lose the momentum in the middle overs. Among the shots Duckett pulled off included a scoop over the keeper's hea🌊d off Shami's second over.
When 🌌Shami marked his run up before toss, it was confirmed that he would be playing his first international since the ODI World Cup final in November 2023.
On a flat track, Shami, who replaced Arshdeep Singh as the sole specialist pacer in the playing eleven, was tasked with bowl🐻ing the opening over of the match.
He induced a couple of play and misses in his opening spell that read 0/15 in two overs. Shami returned to bowl the 19th over which went for 11 runs, capping off an incident free꧒ outing.
He bowled♒ balls close to 140kmph and got the ball to shape away, allaying concerns over his fitness.
At 83 for one, England were on course for 200 w𝐆ith Duckett going all guns blazing and deep batting line-up to follow.
However, the momentum shifted India's way when Chakravarthy had Buttler caught behind with the latter getting 🍒a faint tickle attempting a reverse sweep.
Duck was holed out at deep mid-wicket in the following over 🍨from Axar, leaving England at 87 for three at the hal🐈fway mark.
Chakravarthy 𒅌removed Jamie Smith and Jamie Overton off successive balls in the 14th over to make matters worse for England.
India still lead the series 2ꦏ-1 with the fourth game scheduled in Pune on ♐January 31.
(With PTI inputs)
