Suryakumar Yadav’s maiden fifty, followed by brilliant bowling performances from Shardul Thakur and Hardik Pandya helped India win the fourth T-20 international against England by 8 runs on Friday.
The home side included Rahul Chahar and Yadav in place of Yuzvendra Chahal and the injured Ishan Kishan respectively. The visitors, on the other hand, went in with an unchanged line up.
England skipper Eoin Morgan won the toss and elected to field first. The pair of Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul got their team off to a steady start. The duo added 26 runs for the opening wicket, before the former was caught and bowled by Jofra Archer for 12.
Yadav coming in at No 3, smashed his first delivery in international cricket for a six, and off the bowling of Archer at that! Rahul looked good in his short stay before he fell to Ben Stokes for 14.
Adil Rashid again proved tough for Virat Kohli to read, with the spinner having the Indian skipper stumped for just 1.
Suryakumar along with Rishabh Pant resurrected the innings with a 40 run stand for the fourth wicket. After scoring a brilliant 57, Yadav was caught by Dawid Malan off Sam Curran in an controversial manner. His knock came off 31 balls with 6 fours and 3 six.
Late acceleration from both Shreyas Iyer and Pant then propelled India to 185/8 at the end of 20 overs.
Archer was the pick of the bowlers for England with figures of 4/33, while Sam Curran, Rashid and Mark Wood claimed a wicket apiece.
Chasing 186, England lost Jos Buttler early in the chase. The wicket keeper-batsman mistimed a Bhuvneshwar Kumar delivery to KL Rahul at mid off.
The pair of Jason Roy along with Dawid Malan added 46 runs for the second wicket, before the latter was bowled by debutant Rahul Chahar for 14.
The dangerous Roy looked set for a big score before being caught at deep mid wicket by Yadav off Hardik for a quickfire 47, leaving the visitors in a spot of bother at 66/3.
Jonny Bairstow along with Ben Stokes put on a 65 runs for the fourth wicket before the former miscued a Chahar delivery to Washington Sundar at point for 25.
With 46 needed from the last four overs, Shardul Thakur brought the hosts back into the contest by dismissing both Ben Stokes and Eoin Morgan in successive deliveries.
In the 18th over, Pandya bowled superbly by conceding just six runs and also claimed the wicket of Sam Curran.
In the final over, with 23 needed, Jofra Archer kept England the game with a couple of big hits. But Thakur held his nerve to seal the game and also dismissed Chris Jordan for 12 on the final ball. The visitors ended up with 177/8 at the end of their 20 overs.
Suryakumar Yadav was declared the Player of the Match.