IND v ENG 2nd T20I Review: Bumrah and Nehra seal it in the death

Fortunes fluctuated from India to England but at the end, the Men in Blue held their nerve as completed a thrilling 5 runs victory against the Brits in the 2nd T20I at the VCA Stadium in Nagpur to keep their hopes alive in the 3 match series. The credit for the win must go to the Jasprit Bumrah and Ashish Nehra who held their nerves and bowled brilliantly in the death overs. Going into the final over with Jos Buttler still there, England was the clear favourites but Bumrah held his nerve and bowled an exceptional final over to hand India a nerve-wracking victory.

Eoin Morgan won the toss yet another time and elected to field for the 2nd consecutive time. Amit Mishra came in place of Parvez Rasool as Kohli showed faith in his more experienced guy. Kohli came out to open the batting yet again with KL Rahul and looked in good nick from the outset. From the very first over it was evident that the pitch was not a big scoring surface and India should be content with anything around 150.

Kohli began with a boundary of Tymal Mills in the 2nd over and then struck an exceptional shot of the same bowler in the following over. It was a short of length delivery and Kohli punched it over the mid-off fielder which went sailing over the boundary for a big six. He followed it up with another boundary in the same over but couldn’t continue for long as he was deceived by a beautiful slower ball from Chris Jordan in the first delivery of the 4th over.

It was a pressure match for KL Rahul and he delivered. On a pitch where stroke making was pretty difficult, he made batting look ridiculously easy. Against the run of play, India lost Suresh Raina in the 8th over of Adil Rashid as the southpaw failed to read the googly from the leggie. Yuvraj Singh couldn’t get going either and managed only 4 of 12 balls before giving away his wicket to Moeen Ali in the 11th over.

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Rahul on the other end was playing some lovely shots and deposited Adil Rashid for a big six over the extra cover region followed by a boundary. Manish Pandey who was the new man in couldn’t get going and the boundaries dried out from the 14th over. Even Rahul was finding to time the ball against the English pacers. They relied on their slower balls and bowled the cutters to perfection. Rahul was eventually dismissed after scoring 71 of 47 deliveries. His innings contained 6 fours and 2 sixes. India eventually finished their 20 overs at the score of 144. It wasn’t a match-winning total, but surely a challenging one considering the pitch.

Chasing the modest target, England began with a cautious approach. Kohli started with leggie Yuzvendra Chahal and he bowled a terrific opening over conceding only 2 runs. Chahal couldn’t stem the run flow as he was smashed for a couple of sixes by Jason Roy and Sam Billings in the 3rd over. Veteran left-arm pacer Ashish Nehra bowled an inspired 4th over where he dismissed both the openers on consecutive deliveries. He relied on his short of length deliveries which paid rich dividends in the Jamtha pitch.

Captain Eoin Morgan and Joe Root joined in the middle and started rebuilding the innings. They rotated the strike along and struck the occasional boundaries which didn’t allow the run rate to creep up. Root got two lucky boundaries of Amit Mishra in 9th over but the leggie came back strongly his next over to remove Eoin Morgan.

He should have got Stokes too in the very next over but the southpaw was saved by a no ball. It was a terrific delivery which zipped through the surface and disturbed the timbers but it went in vain. Stokes started gaining in confidence and brought down the required rate with some lusty blows. He struck a four and six of Raina in the 14th over followed by another six in the very next over of Chahal.

It was the experience of Nehra which proved crucial as the left arm pacer removed Ben Stokes in the 17th over with a well-disguised slower delivery. After bowling four short of length deliveries Nehra read Stokes’ mind to perfection and delivered the killer punch. India was in no position to relax as the next man in was hard-hitter Jos Buttler.

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Bumrah bowled a terrific 18th over where he conceded only 3 runs. With 24 needed off the last, the match was tilted in favour of the hosts. Nehra conceded 16 runs in the penultimate over to again tilt the scales in favour of the visitors. His short of length deliveries didn’t quite work out as Buttler struck him for a four and a six to bring down the calculation to 8 of the last over.

It was yet again the 23-year-old JaspritBumrah who was handed over the ball in the pressure cooker situation and he didn’t disappoint. He dismissed Joe Root in the very first ball of the over with a short of length delivery bowled at his normal pace. He again went back to slower ones as he conceded just one run in the next two deliveries. While newcomer Mooen Ali got off the mark Buttler missed a slower ball.

The skiddy customer followed it up with a fast delivery which zipped through the surface and crashed on to the stumps. Buttler was beaten by the sheer pace as he wasn’t expecting it following two slower deliveries. The 5th ball bowled to Chris Jordan was yet another slower delivery but they scampered for a bye.

With 6 required of the final delivery, he bowled a low full toss outside the off stump and Moeen Ali failed to make any contact. It was a sensational final over by the youngster conceding only 2 runs. Both the teams will now fight it out in the decider at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on Wednesday and it is expected to be a sell-out at the Garden City.

Brief Scores:

India: 144/8 in 20 overs (KL Rahul 71, Chris Jordan 3/22)

England: 139/6 in 20 overs (Ben Stokes 38, Ashish Nehra 3/28, JaspritBumrah 2/20)

India won by 5 runs