A spectacular England batting collapse has handed India a 75-run victory in the final Twenty20 international of the series. The result means that Virat Kohli’s men have won the T20 series 2-1, to add to their victories in both the ODI and Test series. England will now head home from their tour of the Indian subcontinent, without managing to even come close to reaching their undoubted potential.
England won the toss and decided to bowl first – a common choice amongst captains when playing in Bengaluru. England couldn’t have wished for a better start to the game, as a mix-up saw India’s star man Virat Kohli run out for just 2 runs. That brought Suresh Raina to the crease though and, together with KL Rahul, he went about rebuilding the Indian innings. Rahul would eventually fall with the score on 65, but Raina would bat alongside MS Dhoni and hit a half century, before eventually being dismissed for 63 by Liam Plunkett.
MS Dhoni, who had been promoted up the order, then went about guiding India to an imposing score. He would go on to hit a half century – amazingly, his first T20 international half century – while Yuvraj would play a devastating cameo, hitting 27 runs from just 10 balls. Both were eventually dismissed, but India still managed to finish with a score of 202-6.
Many teams had chased down big scores before at Bengaluru, so England would have still felt that they had a good chance. Opener Sam Billings was dismissed by the first ball he faced, however Jason Roy and Joe Root then set about building a formidable looking partnership. Roy would then be dismissed for 32, bringing Eoin Morgan to the crease, and Morgan then fired off a quick 40 run from just 20 balls. Yuzvendra Chahal would then dismiss both Root and Morgan in the same over though, bringing two new batsmen to the crease, and starting the spectacular England collapse.
After Morgan, only two players even managed to trouble the scorer – Ben Stokes, who scored 6, and Moeen Ali, who scored 2. The rest of the team were all dismissed for ducks, as England lost eight wickets and managed to add eight runs. From the healthy position of 119.-3, they slipped to 127 all out, with Tymal Mills being the last England batsman to be dismissed.
England will now head home, and will be next in action when they face the West Indies in three ODI matches at the beginning of March. They will then play Ireland in two ODI matches at the beginning of May.