Tilak Varma carries India home in nail-biter – T20 IPL 2024

India 166 for 8 (Tilak 72*, Washington 26, Carse 3-29) beat England 165 for 9 (Buttler 45, Carse 31, Axar 2-32, Varun 2-38) by two wickets

India are used to their No. 3 sealing tense chases in limited-overs cricket. With the legendary one retired from T20Is, the new one shepherded India to a 2-0 lead with a 55-ball 72 that Virat Kohli himself would have been proud of. With wickets falling around him, Tilak Varma had to tamper with his natural game and even farm the strike in the end, but he produced just enough hits to take India over the line with two wickets in hand.

The two sides brought two diametrically opposite styles to the match. India continued testing England with spin, bowling 14 overs of them for 118 runs and six wickets. The beleaguered England side kept going hard at them, somehow managing to get to 165, and then unleashed high pace and bounce on a surface that gave them just enough zip. They defended bravely, gambling twice with spin, but while the pace and bounce brought them wickets, it also travelled. Jofra Archer went for 60 in his four overs. Tilak took his last over, the 16th, for 19 to tilt the scales decisively.

Same, same but different

A first-over wicket for Arshdeep Singh. Check. This time with a bouncer bowled across the body of Phil Salt with two men back for the hook.

A first-ball wicket with spin. Check. This time to home boy Washington Sundar, who replaced the injured Nitish Kumar Reddy.

Wickets for Varun Chakravarthy. Check. Harry Brook bowled through the gate the first time he faced Varun.

Tight bowling from Axar Patel. Check. And this resulted in the two big wickets of Jos Buttler and Liam Livingstone.

However, England refused to get bogged down. They kept hitting back despite the loss of wickets. Buttler scored 45 off 30. Score 90 for 5 in the 12th over.

Smith and Carse boost England

Debutant Jamie Smith, playing in place of the unwell Jacob Bethell, displayed early promise by playing Axar like a medium-pacer and lofting him over long-on. India seemed to have gone to the well too often when they introduced the part-timer Abhishek Sharma, the fifth spinner. Smith took him for a six and a four off the first two balls, but eventually he, too, went to the well once too often and hit a third arm ball straight to long-off.

Brought in to provide batting depth, Brydon Carse displayed all-around ability, hitting three sixes in his 31 off 17. Two of them came off Varun, again under the assumption that everything turns in or goes straight on. A poorly judged second run, though, resulted in his run-out, costing them a big kick in the end. The last four overs brought them just 29.

Pace meets fire

Archer and Mark Wood let the ball rip under the night sky. Wood seamed a quick delivery back to trap Abhishek, but not before the opener had taken down Archer by carving him for three boundaries in the first over. Varma went a step further by giving him the 1-2: back away and cut for four, followed by a swept six out of the stadium. In between, Archer’s pace accounted for the wicket of Sanju Samson.

England dig in

England didn’t back down, and kept testing the middle of the pitch. They went for runs, but Carse managed to get the wickets of Suryakumar Yadav and Dhruv Jurel with just that length. Jamie Overton piled on with a corker first ball to take the glove of Hardik Pandya as India lost three wickets for 21 runs in four overs and slipped to 78 for 5 in 9.1.

Rashid drops Washington

With a little bit of grip available to him, Adil Rashid bowled beautifully in the middle overs to pile the pressure on India. Four runs came off 11 balls for the stand. Then a flying bouncer for five wides brought India relief. However, Wood again seemed to have produced the wicket, but Rashid dropped a sitter at mid-on. A no-ball, later in the over, was followed by a six off the free hit, and two glorious back-foot aerial punches to hard lengths that cleared mid-off. Now 53 required off seven.

England buy their way back

Carse again produced a beauty to hit the top of middle of Washington. India still had one more allrounder before they could get into the tail. Buttler bought that wicket with the introduction of Liam Livingstone’s spin. Axar holed out to deep midwicket, to open one end up with 40 still needed off 31.

Tilak prevails

Buttler went to Archer to drive home the advantage but Tilak cracked the game open. A top-edged six didn’t quite amuse Archer, who had seen Tilak do that earlier as well, but the flat square-cut for the follow-up six stunned him. More desperation followed when Arshdeep toe-ended a boundary but Archer had been distracted by his backing away and wasn’t attacking the stumps at any rate.

Buttler gambled again with Rashid. Tilak farmed the strike early, and gave Arshdeep just one ball to play out. Like Axar, Arshdeep, too, swung hard and holed out to deep square leg.

Carse again bowled a tight over to leave 13 off the last two, and Buttler gambled again. Tilak took the first four balls again. For just three. Now you can’t blame the lower order for lack of consistency. Even Ravi Bishnoi swung at Livingstone, but this time the edge flew just over short third.

Tilak finished it off with a searing cover-driven four with four balls to go.

Sidharth Monga is a senior writer at ESPNcricinfo

Source: ESPN Crickinfo

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