Jos Buttler-led England team registered their first win in the five-match series after defeating Suryakumar Yadav's Indian cricket team by 26 runs in the 3rd T20 which was being played at the Niranjan Shah Stadium in Rajkot, on January 28 (Tuesday). The Three-Lions have managed to avoid a series loss with this win as the series currently stands at India leading 2-1 with two more games to go.
Varun Chakravarthy steals show with fifer
In the third match, Varun Chakaravarthy claimed his second 5-wicket haul in T20Is, continuing his incredible run since rejoining the Indian squad. Varun became the third Indian bowler to register this accomplishment and joined Kuldeep Yadav and Bhuvneshwar Kumar on the elite list. During the Rajkot T20I, the mystery spinner put England at a disadvantage by dismissing Jos Buttler, Jamie Smith, Jamie Overton, Brydon Carse, and Jofra Archer. Varun has been outstanding so far in the series and took his first five wickets during the South Africa tour. The spinner took two wickets in the Chennai match and three in the opening encounter.
However, despite Varun's stunning performance, Ben Duckett's fifty and Liam Livingstone's cameo at the end powered them to a fighting total of 171/9. Duckett scored a quickfire half-century knock of 51 runs off just 28 balls and later Livingstone unleashed his carnage, which included hitting 19 runs in a single over against Ravi Bishnoi. He got out after scoring 43 off 34 balls.
Indian batting collapse against England
India lost their first three wickets inside the powerplay itself. Abhishek Sharma (24 off 14 balls) and Suryakumar Yadav (14 off 7 balls) did get starts but failed to convert them into big knocks. Samson was once again struggling against pace and got out after scoring just 3 runs off 6 balls.
No batter from the Men in Blue side could take a stand, Hardik Pandya did score 40 runs but it came at a strike rate of 114.29 off 35 balls. He did hold on to one end when wickets were falling but took too much time to change gears and lost his wickets under the pressure of the required run rate. For England, Jamie Overton took the most three wickets. Meanwhile, Jofra Archer and Brydon Carse took 2-wickets each. Adil Rashid and Mark Wood settled with one each.
England won the match by 26 runs and have saved the series as well. They will now be eyeing to level the series by winning the next game which will be played at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune, on January 31.