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England delivered a much-improved display but Tilak Varma’s nerveless 72 not out carried India to a nail-biting two-wicket victory and a 2-0 lead in their five-match T20 series in Chennai.
Blown away in Kolkata, England coped better with another trial by spin as they posted 165-9, led by Jos Buttler’s 45 off 30 balls and cameos from Jamie Smith (22 off 12) and Brydon Carse (31 off 17).
Carse then took 3-29 as England’s battery of quicks reduced India to 146-8 but Varma was immovable and used the pace to his advantage to get India over the line with four balls to spare.
Varma harvested five sixes, all behind square, while the last of his four fours laced through the covers off Jamie Overton left England in the last chance saloon as they look to mark Brendon McCullum’s maiden series as all-format head coach with a win.
Adil Rashid took 1-14 but his drop when Washington Sundar was on 10 allowed the all-rounder to collected an extra 16 runs, while fortune evaded Jofra Archer, who recorded T20-worst figures of 4-0-60-1 and ran out Carse just as he looked set to carry England to a defendable total.
The score appeared slightly below-par at halfway as they lost six wickets to the slow bowlers, with India’s pacemen topping and tailing the innings and five spinners on from the start of the fourth uninterrupted to the end of the 17th over.
After being asked to bat first, Phil Salt perished in the first over to Arshdeep Singh again, fetching a shorter ball outside off and miscuing a pull, but Buttler settled with three blows off the left-armer, including a towering six.
Suryakumar Yadav reacted by turning to spin and was immediately rewarded when Ben Duckett top-edged a reverse sweep to Dhruv Jurel although Buttler and Brook went on the offensive to carry England to 58-2 at the end of the powerplay.
But as in Kolkata, Chakravarthy applied the brakes with a moment of magic. A well-disguised googly turned in and snaked through the thinnest of gaps between bat and pad to kiss the top of Brook’s off stump. The Yorkshireman, who blamed smog for contributing to his dismissal at Eden Gardens, could only smile in bewilderment as he trudged off.
India’s spinners turned the screw and the pressure told on Buttler and Liam Livingstone, both of whom could not get enough elevation when throwing the kitchen sink at Axar Patel drag downs.
Chakravarthy was taken the distance once by a twinkle-toed Smith, handed a T20 debut with Jacob Bethell unwell, and twice by Carse, who replaced Gus Atkinson, although another wrong ‘un did for Jamie Overton.
While Smith holed holed to part-timer Abhishek Sharma and Carse was run-out after a mix-up with Archer, England’s battering ram of fast bowlers had something to bowl at.
Abhishek was the match-winner on Wednesday but missed a heave at Mark Wood and was plumb lbw and while Archer was expensive, conceding 41 in his three-over burst, he did chip in with the wicket of Sanju Samson, who top-edged to Carse in the deep.
Varma used Archer’s pace against him twice then claimed his third six behind square off Carse, who rebounded by cramping Yadav for room and bowling India’s captain before Jurel loosely drove low to short midwicket.
There was pin-drop silence in the MA Chidambaram Stadium when Overton struck with his first ball as Hardik Pandya uncertainly prodded forward and edged behind although Adil Rashid’s regulation drop off Sundar on 10 seemed costly when he bludgeoned Wood for three successive boundaries.
Carse had his third when he breached the defences of Sundar and momentum seemed to be with England when Axar fell into the trap set by Livingstone, Archer’s luckless evening continued as Varma top-edged over Buttler for six before carving away for another maximum.
Varma was happy to see off Rashid, taking just one run from the leg-spinner’s final over, then initially turned down singles with Ravi Bishnoi for company when Carse completed his allotment. After eventually turning over the strike, Bishnoi collected fours off Carse and Livingstone.
With six needed off the last over, Varma drove Overton’s second ball and set off in jubilant celebration.
