With parity restored in the three-match series, Sunday’s decider at Old Trafford in Manchester promises to be mouth-watering.
When the Indian bowlers put on another impressive performance to bowl England out for 246 in 49 overs, no one knew the visiting batsman would be reduced to 146 in 38.5 overs thanks to Topley’s good seam and swing bowling.
David Willey (1/27 in 9 overs), experienced Moeen Ali (1/30) and Liam Livingstone (1/4) also played their part perfectly.
Topi’s figures were the best by an Englishman in ‘The Mecca of Cricket’.
After winning the first game by 10 wickets, the Indian team had no idea that the wheel of luck would spin so fast.
Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant were back in the dressing room after the first powerplay with only 31 runs on the board, the only possible outcome.
Suryakumar Yadav (27), Hardik Pandya (29) and Ravindra Jadeja (29) tried their best but the scores would certainly provide a bigger picture of the plight of the Indian batsmen.
Dhawan (9 runs in 26 balls) and
Rohit (0 off 9 balls) clearly looked uneasy as the 6ft 5in tall Topley hit the seam and with his height, also pulled off a consistently disappointing bounce.
Knowing that Rohit is a compulsive hooker and puller, Topley kept it full and a distinctive left-handed batsman’s delivery with an angle, found the Indian captain swooping down the front.
Dhawan, whose stay on the wicket was as painful as Rohit’s, tickled Jos Buttler on the leg side.
Kohli’s quick 22-second move in the Lord’s Long Room was brilliantly filmed by the broadcasters as he was seen raising his collar as he entered the field of play.
What followed was three picturesque shots—one off-drive, one on-drive and one cover drive—all out of the top drawer but the tendency to play everything on the front-foot led to his downfall.
Left-arm pacer Willie angled an off-stump and once again the former India captain misjudged the length with his front-foot trigger. The resulting nick was happily accepted by Captain Butler behind the stumps.
Rishabh Pant (0) in the blue Indian jersey has often been a lighter shade of what he is in white flannel. A full toss ball from seamer Brydon Cars is credited to the mid-on fielder. It was 31 for 4 and suddenly the target of 247 seemed huge.
Suryakumar Yadav (27 off 29 balls) started right where he left off during that incredible T20I century in Nottingham.
With Pandya, he added 42 runs before Topley, coming in for his second spell, got one for extra bounce and forced the batsman to go for a non-existent cut shot when the bare minimum for execution Was.
Earlier, Yuzvendra Chahal’s clever variations looked to complement Hardik Pandya’s steady pace medium bowling as India bundled out England for 246 in 49 overs.
However, it was Moeen Ali (47 off 64 balls) who took the attack back into the opposition camp with his audacious hook and pulled off sixes with a slog sweep as England’s total had some semblance of respectability, as the apprehensive The top-order promised a lot, but delivered. little.
Moeen and David Willey (41 off 49 balls) put on 62 runs for the seventh wicket to help chase down the target of 250.
On a two-paced track, Chahal (10-0-47-4) was brilliant at managing his length while giving plenty of air to the ball as he got rid of England’s ‘Big Three’ – Jonny Bairstow (38), Joe Root ( 11) and Ben Stokes (21) – and then got Moeen out only when he looked dangerous.
At the other end, Pandya (6-0-28-2), who is slowly finding his bowling rhythm back, picked up the wickets of Jason Roy (23) and Liam Livingstone (33) and Rohit Sharma scored runs. – Flow stopped. Had another good day at the office, maneuvering his six-man attack.
Mohammed Shami (10-0-48-1) was as regal as ever as he dismissed rival skipper Jos Buttler (4) with a sharp inswinger that came into the tail late.
Jasprit Bumrah (10-1-49-2) and Shami were once again in the zone, although it was not as big a defeat for England as compared to the opening game.
It was during the middle overs that Chahal was excellent as he controlled the white kookaburra like a yo-yo, pushing the delivery fuller and at times shortening the length.
The balls were all different lengths to dismiss Bairstow, Root and Stokes, while Moeen Ali, towards fag-end, was hit from the line of delivery.
But at the end of it all it all came to naught.
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