India 144 for 8 (Rahul 71, Jordan 3-22) beat England 139 for 6 (Stokes 38, Nehra 3-28) by five runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Ashish Nehra claimed three wickets before Jasprit Bumrah closed out victory © AFP
Jasprit Bumrah conceded just two runs and took two wickets in the final over to secure India a nerve-shredding victory in the second T20 in Nagpur and level the series at 1-1. Jos Buttler seemed to have struck the decisive blows when he hit the last three balls of the penultimate over for 12 runs but both he and Joe Root were dismissed by Bumrah as England fell short.
With Root and Ben Stokes well set and 32 required off the last four, India broke through via Ashish Nehra. Bumrah then conceded three runs off the 18th over, as his slower ball proved almost impossible to hit. Nehra’s final over was taken for 16, Buttler just clearing Virat Kohli’s jump at long-on for a six that brought England’s requirement down to eight from six balls, before Bumrah provided the kiss of death.
More to follow…
England captain Eoin Morgan opted to chase again after winning the toss in Nagpur. On what Morgan described as “a really Indian wicket”, England brought in an extra spinner, in Liam Dawson, as they looked to take the T20 series with one match to play.
Virat Kohli said he would have preferred to bowl first but also suggested the pitch might be better to bat on during the first innings. Of the 10 T20Is played at the VCA Stadium, only three have been won by the chasing side.
Kohli confirmed the return of Amit Mishra to India’s XI, the legspinner replacing Parvez Rasool’s offspin in the only change from the side comprehensively beaten in Kanpur.
Liam Plunkett was the man to make way for Dawson, giving England a third spin option and a clear change in tactics after Adil Rashid was not required to bowl in the first T20, during which Moeen Ali and England’s seamers kept a rein on the scoring.
India: 1 Virat Kohli (capt), 2 KL Rahul, 3 Suresh Raina, 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5, MS Dhoni (wk), 6 Manish Pandey, 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Amit Mishra, 9 Yuzvendra Chahal, 10 Ashish Nehra, 11 Jasprit Bumrah
England: 1 Sam Billings, 2 Jason Roy, 3 Joe Root, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Ben Stokes, 6 Jos Buttler, 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Liam Dawson, 9 Chris Jordan, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Tymal Mills
Alan Gardner is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. @alanroderick
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo