India vs England 2nd ODI was nothing short of a clash between the ‘Lycans’ as the 37000 plus crowd at Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground, Nagpur witnessed one of the most gripping and nail-biting last minute games after a very very long time.
The whole Indian batting lineup went cheap, sans KL Rahul (71) and Manish Pandey (30), as England’s bowlers restricted the hosts at 144 runs. While answering the ‘easy to achieve’ target, visitors lost both of their openers to the classic line and length of Ashish Nehra and from there on a back and forth game started. Joe Root (38) and Eoin Morgan (17) showed some resistance to the Indian bowlers before the latter giving away his wicket to the exceptional spin of Amit Mishra.
England could have still managed to clinch the series but as the pitch slowed down in the middle overs, so did the scoreboard. The pitch lost all the bounce and Joe Root started struggling to anticipate the recoil with the ball continuously striking at the neck of his bat. Somehow, Ben Stokes and Root registered a 52 runs partnership against the spin attack and again the match came into England grasp.
The moment when only the last five death overs were remaining, Virat Kohli gave Jasprit Bumrah and Ashish Nehra the wagon wheel. In the 17th over, Nehra gave his team the much-needed breakthrough in form of Ben Stokes (38), putting an end to England’s series-clinching hopes. Jasprit Bumrah too stuck to a disciplined line and length, making the visitors crave for some runs. The responsibility to bowl in the 19th over was given to Nehra but he ended up conceding 22 runs and England only needed 8 easy runs to claim the series in the last offer. And Then Came Bumrah!!
Scoring eight runs in the last over with 6 wickets in hand was never a difficult task but Bumrah did something magical and won our hearts. This is how the last over went: W 1 0 W 1 0.
These last over stats looks mesmerizing enough to let the world acknowledge Bumrah’s unbeaten challenge and it clearly shows the class of this youngster.
India ended up leveling the series by 1-0 and Jasprit Bumrah was adjudged ‘Man Of The Match’.
From Nehra’s comeback to Bumrah’s rise, this match has given us some of the best moments to cherish and here are some of the statistical highlights from the India vs England 2nd T20I.
- Amit Mishra leveled the Indian star spinner, Ravichandran Ashwin by taking 200 wickets in T20s, the most by any International bowler.
- Amit Mishra also became the second leg spinner to take 200 or more wickets in T20s, the first one being Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi.
- Mishra became the 6th spinner to claim 200 T20 wickets, Saeed Ajmal standing at the top with 260 wickets.
- Amit Mishra became the 18th International cricket playing bowler to take 200 T20 wickets. Dwayne Bravo tops the list with 367 wickets.
- This was the second time that India lost five wickets in the last three overs of a T20 International and interestingly, both these incidents happened while playing against England.
- 144 was the second-lowest total defended by team India in T20Is as the lowest was 138 runs against Zimbabwe in 2016 at Harare. This was also the lowest total successfully defended by India at home turf and fourth overall.
- Only three T20I have been played in Nagpur and this was the first that India won in the shortest format of cricket at this venue.
- Ashish Nehra has the most number wickets on his name (16) in T20I’s powerplays which are the most by any bowler since 2016.
- Ashish Nehra is now the second leading wicket-taker in T20Is for India after Ravichandran Ashwin.
- KL Rahul registered the highest T20Is score by an Indian batsman (71) against England beating Virender Sehwag who scores 68 runs against the team in 2007.
- Virat Kohli has played eight T20Is against England with an average of 29.25, his lowest against any International team
- Yuvraj Singh has an average of just 17.58 runs in his last 15 T20Is.
- Ben Stokes’ 38 runs knock was his highest in T20Is
What’s Next
India vs England 3rd T20 is scheduled at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru where Virat Kohli has alone scored more than 2000 runs and is also considered the new skipper’s play ground. With the series tally standing at 1-1, India will be looking forward to sealing the series once and for all, giving Virat Kohli his 1st T20I series win after becoming the full-time Indian Captain.
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30th January 2017
Rohan Jaitly