India beat England by seven wickets to win the T20 International series 2-1 at Bristol on Sunday. Rohit Sharma scored a magnificent hundred guiding India to victory in the high scoring encounter. England had their moments as they got off to a blistering start but Indian bowlers applied breaks to the scoring right towards the death. Hardik Pandya took four crucial wickets and also played a cameo alongside Rohit Sharma to ensure a smooth end to the series.
England made one inevitable change to the side by replacing Ben Stokes in place of Joe Root. On the other hand, India made two surprising changes. They brought in debutant Deepak Chahar in place of Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and replaced Kuldeep Yadav by Siddarth Kaul keeping the conditions in mind. Though the strategy looked ordinary when England openers blasted bowlers all around the park. They were 94 for no loss in just 7.4 overs which already looked like a match winning partnership for the hosts.
England looked on course to set a target of around 220 or more with the start they got. But the middle order failed to capitalise on the platform set by Jason Roy and Joss Butler. Things slowed down after the fall of Jason Roy who scored 67 runs in just 31 balls hitting seven sixes and in the quest to get a humongous total, the middle order tried too hard which brought about their downfall. Hardik Pandya gave away 22 runs in his first over but came back strong and picked four crucial wickets at the right time restricting England to a par score of 198 runs.
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India would be very satisfied after putting England to bat as Eoin Morgan’s side was easily 20 to 30 runs short. The visitors started well but lost first wicket in the form of Shikhar Dhawan on a lose delivery by David Willey. Though it was a spectacular catch by Jake Ball, it had boundary written all over it. In walked KL Rahul who displayed contrasting performances in the first two matches. He commenced with a lovely straight drive and looked on course to play a innings similar to the one he played at Manchester. Unfortunately for India, he perished on 19 runs from just 10 balls as a result of an unbelievable effort by Chris Jordan at the mid on boundary.
Virat Kohli joined Rohit Sharma at the crease and they played some sumptuous shots at an intriguing run rate. Rohit Sharma played a match winning knock of 100 off just 56 balls taking India to a 2-1 series victory. Virat Kohli played a good supporting innings before he smashed one of Chris Jordan straight into his hands. He made 43 off 29 balls leaving India in a comfortable positing at 151/3 in 14.5 overs.
Hardik Pandya walked in and scored an unbeaten 33 runs off just 14 balls, sealing India’s eighth three match series victory in T20 Internationals. India have never lost a three match series ever in this format.
Virat Kohli’s side will feel confident going into the three match ODI series that begins from 12th July at Nottingham.
Brief scores: England 198/9 in 20 overs (Jason Roy 67 off 31 balls, Hardik Pandya 4-0-38-4) lost to India 201/3 in 18.4 overs (Rohit Sharma 100* off 56 balls, Ben Stokes 2-0-11-0) by 7 wickets.