Suryakumar’s 117 runs in vain, England beat India by 17 runs in 3rd T20
Suryakumar Yadav played a brilliant innings of 117 but it was not enough for India to chase down a mammoth target of 216 against England at Trent Bridge, Nottingham. The English bowlers managed to restrict India to 198/9 despite a valiant effort from Suryakumar, who did not find much support from the other end. However, India sealed the series 2-1.
Suryakumar became the fifth Indian batsman after Suresh Raina, KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma and Deepak Hooda to score a century in T20Is. The 31-year-old played shots around the field to give India a massive chase. He played a brilliant innings with the help of 14 fours and 6 sixes.
Chasing a mammoth target of 216, India lost Rishabh Pant early as he failed in his second stint as an opener and was dismissed for 1. Virat Kohli came out to bat at number three and tried to adopt India’s fearless approach with the bat as he looked to be hitting a big shot despite hitting fours and sixes in the last two balls. However, he missed the delivery from David Willey as Jason Roy took a fine catch at cover, adding to his leanness. He scored 11 runs in 6 balls.
Captain Rohit Sharma too had a tough time with the bat as he once again failed to score and was dismissed for 11. Rohit looked a bit harsh while being in the middle of the 11 deliveries as he failed to get the timing right on several occasions.
After losing to Top 3 for just 31 runs in 5 overs, Suryakumar along with Shreyas Iyer chased down the target. Both gave India a fighting chance with a massive 119-run partnership for the fourth wicket. However, Iyer did not look fluent during his 28-run knock as most of the work was done by Suryakumar in partnership.
India’s two designated finishers Dinesh Karthik (6) and Ravindra Jadeja (7) failed to provide enough support to Sky who scored his maiden international century off 48 balls.
The 31-year-old fought hard but the pressure was mounting on him to work on his own. He hit Moeen Ali for two fours and a six to give some hope to the fans. However, Ali got the better of Suryakumar, who tried to hit another big shot but was caught by Phil Salt.
For England, Reece Topley was the bowler with three scalps, while David Willey claimed two.
Earlier, David Malan played a brilliant knock of 77 off 39 balls as England mounted India’s second string attack to end a mammoth total of 215 for seven.
Opting to bat, skipper Jos Buttler (18 off 9 balls) and Jason Roy (27 off 26) helped England reach 52 for 1 in six overs. Malan and Liam Livingstone (42 not out on 29) then put on an entertaining 84-run partnership to set the stage for a huge total.
Having already sealed the series, India rested their frontline bowlers Jasprit Bumrah, in-form Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Yuzvendra Chahal apart from star all-rounder Hardik Pandya.
In the absence of senior bowlers, Avesh Khan and Umran Malik were hammered by the England batsmen but Ravi Bishnoi (2/30) and Harshal Patel (2/35) turned out to be positive for the visitors.
