Johnny Bairstow and Ben Stokes put on a show tonight at MCA Stadium. After a cautious start by openers Bairstow and Jason Roy, England ran away with the game. Indian spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Krunal Pandya batted fiercely as the match hit 34 sixes in two innings, the second-highest six at Indian places.
After Butler won the toss and brought India to bat, England struck twice to send both openers cheaply. But then a 121-run partnership between Kohli and Rahul put the Indian innings on track. Kohli again departed after his fifty as the iconic 3-figure mark pushed him further. Rahul then teamed up with Pant to add another great stand, as did KL with his ton.
Pant was also dismissed after playing a quick innings of 77 runs. In the end, Hardik Pandya’s 16-ball 35-run innings took him beyond 330 runs. England’s bowling was good until the 40th over, but they had to spend 126 runs in the last 10 overs, reflecting the flow that led to their struggle to death. For them, Racee Topley and Tom Curren took a few wickets in the form of Rashid and Sam Curran took one wicket each. But the way the English batsmen chased him, it seemed like a walk in Kull Park.
Captain Virat Kohli ran out of ideas as the visitors won with over six overs to spare. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Prasidh Krishna started mini-collapse, but it was never enough. Eventually, Damian Liamstone, David Malan, as the No. 1 T20I batsman in the world, eventually claimed a six-wicket victory for England.
England (337/4 in 43.3 overs) beat INDIA (336/6 in 50 overs) by 6 wickets with 5 wickets remaining!