India produced an inspired bowling display to deny England their first limited-overs series in the country by winning the second Twenty-20 International (T20I) in Nagpur by five runs. India posted 144/8 after being sent into bat in the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium. England, seemingly in control, faltered at the end to be restricted to 139/6.
Young pacer Jasprit Bumrah bowled an inspired last over, conceding only two runs, to deny England a victory. He finished the match with figures of 20/2 in his four overs, giving away only three runs in the 18th over. Veteran pacer Asish Nehra (3/28) also contributed to India's win.
England won the first match of the three-match series by seven wickets at Kanpur. The third match is at Bengaluru on February 1.
Sam Billings (12) got England going in the run chase with two huge sixes of leg-spinner Yuzvender Chahal in the third over. But Nehra struck twice in the next over, having Billings (12) caught by Bumrah at fine leg in the first ball and then induced a leading edge of Jason Roy (10) in the next ball to be caught at mid-on by Suresh Raina. The twin strikes jolted England. They needed time to get back in their run-chasing groove.
Skipper Eoin Morgan (17) and Joe Root (38) began rebuilding. Root struck two fours in the ninth over, off leg-spinner Amit Mishra, to increase the run rate. England reached 65/2 in 10 overs, needing 80 more runs to win in 60 balls. But their ambitions received a blow when Morgan mistimed a lofted shot off Mishra to be caught at deep midwicket in the 11th over.
Mishra then bowled Ben Stokes (38) in the third ball of the over but replays showed he overstepped to concede a no-ball. Stokes launched himself to a boundary and a six off Raina in the 14th over to increase the run rate. He continued with a pull shot off Chahal for a six to bring up England's 100 in the 15th over. England were 104/3 in 15 overs, needing 41 runs off 30 balls. The 52-run fourth-wicket partnership of Root and Stokes steadily took England on way to a rare series win in India.
A desperate Kohli, needing a breakthrough, brought back Nehra, who duly responded, removing Stokes with a slower fuller delivery on middle stump that the left-hander missed and was adjudged leg before wicket. The pressure oscillated towards the English batsmen despite Root anchoring one end. But they needed 24 runs from 12 balls and urgently needed boundaries. Jos Butler (15) whipped Nehra for a four and a six in the 19th over to inch them closer. Root was caught lbw by Bumrah in the first ball of the last over, with England needing eight for victory. Bumrah then castled Butler in the fourth ball, with England still requiring seven runs off two balls, which proved too much.
Earlier, India posted a paltry total. Opener K.L. Rahul (71) was the top scorer for the hosts while Manish Pandey contributed with a crucial 30 runs. Put in to bat, Indian openers Virat Kohli and Rahul started the innings cautiously by playing the ball to its merit. After four overs, Kohli, who slammed 21 runs in 15 balls, failed to continue his aggressive batting as he was dismissed by pacer Chris Jordan.
Jordan bowled a slower and wider ball, to which Kohli stepped out for a lofted shot but ended up getting caught at long-on to Liam Dawson. Incoming batsman Raina, who impressed in the last match at Kanpur, was sent back by leg-spinner Adil Rashid after only two overs with seven runs.
The recalled left-hander tried to slog sweep but ended up hitting the ball straight to Jordan at long-on. After eight overs, India were struggling at 56/2 with two premier batsmen departing cheaply.
Rahul, who seemed to be in good nick, played his regular shots and signalled his return to form while incoming batsman Yuvraj Singh failed to step up to the occasion, being sent packing in the 11th over while trying a sweep to spinner Moeen Ali. The Punjab batsman was adjudged leg before wicket.
Unperturbed by the fall of wickets, Rahul went on to slam a quick-fire 50. His 32-ball knock was laced with three boundaries and two sixes. The fall of Yuvraj's wicket brought in Manish Pandey, who along with Rahul helped the hosts to get past 100-run mark in the 14th over. Both batsmen forged a 56-run fourth-wicket partnership before Rahul was caught by Strokes at deep mid-wicket.
England take 1-0 lead in first match
Finally England's bowlers had the chance to spearhead a victory on this tour. True, none of them picked up more than two wickets, but that only established how good they were as a unit. India were kept to a measly 147 on a Kanpur pitch that wasn't in any way inimical and as icing on the cake Eoin Morgan scored a half-century to make sure his team took a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
India, who had lost the toss and were put in, seemed rather obsessed with power-hitting. They had gone through the entire World T20 playing proper cricket, only to be brutally swept aside by West Indies in the semi-final. From the moment Virat Kohli carved the third ball of the match for four through point, it seemed like they were trying to go for the boundary every single ball. It did not pay off though, as England dashed a little bit of the Republic Day celebrations at a jam-packed Green Park stadium in Kanpur.
Admittedly, it doesn't seem the worst strategy to leave your brain behind as a batsman when playing T20. There's 10 wickets to negotiate 20 overs, and while batting first, it even seems logical to do so. But India don't normally play in this fashion and will need time to catch up with the rest of the world. This evening, for example, they couldn't deal with how they were bleeding wickets, at the worst possible times.
Kohli and KL Rahul, who opened the batting, fell within three overs of each other on either side of the Power play. Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh and Manish Pandey - Nos 3, 4 and 6 - dismissed within three overs as well, between the 11th and the 14th. India couldn't lay a good enough foundation at the start and were running out of batsmen by the end. No one made it past a score of 36.
The key for England was in how well they read the pitch. It was both grassy and cracked and lent itself to fast bowlers who were willing to hit the deck and also experiment with cross-seamers and slower balls. Jordan and Mills - who were playing their first matches on this tour - did exactly that. Then Moeen, who began his spell having Kohli caught at short midwicket for 29 off 26, excelled in the middle overs, bowling stump-to-stump. His length was lovely as well, not full enough to drive freely and not short enough that the batsman could use the pace. The end result, he conceded only one boundary.
India had somehow mis-hit their way to 47 in the Powerplay, but once England had the comfort of having five men on the boundary, the edges no longer found gaps. They offered a mere 37 runs between the 13th and 19th overs. Moeen had created the pressure, the quicks came back, knowing they will be targeted, but by varying their pace and banging the ball into the pitch without the width to cut or pull, they gave India, who were by now only trying to hit the ball as hard as they could, very few options.
