India hold their nerve to force series decider

After three one-sided games in the series, we were finally treated to a game that went down to the wire in the fourth T20I between India and England. On a dewy night in Ahmedabad, England fell 7 runs short of India’s total of 185. The visitors were well on their way to victory with Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow at the crease but two back-to-back wickets in the 17th over turned the tide in India’s favour. Jofra Archer gave the Indians a scare in the final over with two boundaries that left England needing only 10 runs off the final 3 balls, but Shardul Thakur held his nerve to close the game out and force the decider.

As has been the case in the first three games, England won the toss and opted to bowl first. With two right-handers at the crease, Morgan opted to once again open the bowling with leggie Adil Rashid but Rohit Sharma didn’t allow him to settle and deposited his first delivery into the stands. Unfortunately, Rohit couldn’t make this start count and was once again undone by a slower delivery from Jofra Archer. 

India sent Suryakumar Yadav in at number three ahead of Virat Kohli and he got off the mark in international cricket with style, hitting his first delivery for six against the pace of Jofra Archer. Yadav embodied the attacking intent that Kohli emphasized before the start of the series to give India a great start despite the loss of Rohit. England were able to pick up the wickets of Rahul and Kohli in the middle overs which briefly stemmed the flow of runs but Yadav and Pant couldn’t be kept quiet for long as they looked to target Adil Rashid and Sam Curran in particular.

Just like his Mumbai team-mate Ishan Kishan, Yadav also got to his fifty in his debut innings in international cricket before eventually being dismissed controversially. It looked as if Malan had grassed Yadav’s catch on Television but the third umpire was not able to find conclusive evidence that the ball kissed the turf, much to the bemusement of the Indian team and cricketing world. Thankfully for the Indians, Shreyas Iyer was able to take over after Yadav’s dismissal as his innings of 37 from 18 balls took India to a score of 185.

India continued this momentum into their bowling innings as they dismissed the dangerous Jos Buttler early before restricting England to a modest total of 71-3 in 10 overs. However, bowling got increasingly difficult for the spinners as the dew set in. Stokes and Bairstow were able to take advantage of this as they carted Washington Sundar for 52 runs from his quota of four overs. England were cruising with 46 needed off the last four overs but two wickets of consecutive deliveries from Shardul Thakur changed the complexion of the game. Despite some lusty blows from Archer at the end, India were able to see out the game.

This was the first time a team has successfully defended a total in this series and this victory perfectly sets up the decider on Saturday.