India vs England | How and where India won the second T20I
After suffering a loss in the first T20I, India bounced back at Nagpur with a hard-fought 5-run victory over the visitors, courtesy of fantastic spells from Ashish Nehra and Jasprit Bumrah. It was the India pacer’s decision to resort to slower deliveries in the final overs which turned the match.
KL Rahul did what no other batsman could
The pitch at the VCA Stadium was difficult for the batsmen to score freely. Throughout the match, batsmen from both the teams struggled to get accustomed to the pace of the wicket. Only one batsman scored a half-century on the night – India’s KL Rahul.
The opener, who has been under a bit of pressure due to his recent performances, took his time to settle down before playing a blazing knock of 71 runs from 47 deliveries. The 24-year-old played at a strike rate of 151.06 – the highest of the match – and found the boundaries at will. Out of the 8 fours and 4 sixes India managed on their way to 144, Rahul had hit 6 fours and 2 sixes.
His knock proved to be a huge difference between both the sides as none of the English batsmen could match his effort. In fact, the second-highest individual score in the match were those of Joe Root (38) and Ben Stokes (38). On a pitch where everyone struggled, Rahul stood tall and delivered for his team.
Joe Root’s misery
It was always going to be either Manish Pandey or Joe Root, depending on who ended up on the winning side. Like Manish Pandey in the first innings, Joe Root got stuck at the wicket and failed to accelerate when his team needed the most. The 26-year-old is not known for his big-hitting, and he struggled once again towards the death.
After Eoin Morgan’s dismissal in the 11th over, Root and Stokes needed to get their team over line. While Stokes tried his best, Root failed to move through the gears. In fact, Joe Root’s first 22 runs of the innings came off 16 balls, his next 16 runs arrived off 22 balls!
In the 18th over, Root looked uncomfortable in the middle against Bumrah and failed to connect with two deliveries, before surviving a scare in the final delivery when he hit a poorly-timed shot. Although Jos Buttler’s hitting took England to the cusp of victory, needing just eight runs of the final over, it was Root who was on strike in the final over.
The English batsman was unlucky to have been given out lbw after hitting the ball onto his pads off the first delivery of Bumrah, and the visitors did not recover from that blow. On another night, Root might have been the hero.
Nehra and Bumrah resort to slower deliveries
The English pacers had shown the way in the first innings, when they bowled short of a good length and varied their pace to tremendous effect. The pitch was assisting the pacers when they ran their fingers over the ball. The Indian batsmen found it difficult to get the slower deliveries away.
In the first T20I, the English pacers out-bowled their Indian counterparts. They found the perfect length and stuck to it. The Indian pacers, on the other hand, failed to pick that up and were hit all over the park by the English batsmen as they tried to pitch the ball up in search of swing and seam movements.
However at Nagpur, the Indian pacers were quick to draw back their length. Ashish Nehra started it in his opening spell when he dismissed Sam Billings and Jason Roy in the fourth over with short of a length deliveries. Towards the end, both Jasprit Bumrah and Ashish Nehra refrained from bowling too many full-length deliveries, and used the slower deliveries to good effect.
The yellow deliveries are the off-cutters and slower deliveries used by the Indian pacers. © ESPNcricinfo