The Ravi Bishnoi and Harshit Rana Show That Left England Stunned as India Clinched T20 Series by 3-1.

Powered by fifties from Shivam Dube and Hardik Pandya and great spells from Ravi Bishnoi and Harshit Rana, India beat England by a thrilling 15 runs in the 4th T20I match on Friday in Pune. Hardik Pandya (53) and Shivam Dube (53) scored confident fifties to guide India to 181/9 after being invited to bat. Spinner Ravi Bishnoi (3/28) and concussion substitute Harshit Rana (3/33) then accounted for six wickets between them after Varun Chakravarthy’s 2-28 to send England in for 166. India were gasping at 12 for 3 at one stage but dragged the score to over 150-run mark, led by a Dube-Pandya 87-run stand — Pandya 53 off 30 balls, while Dube scored at 53 runs of 34 balls. India have now taken an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match series with this victory. The Ravi Bishnoi and Harshit Rana Show That Left England Stunned as India Clinched T20 Series by 3-1.

TOSS-

England won the toss and chose to field.

TEAMS LINE UP-

India Squad:

Sanju Samson (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Ravi Bishnoi, Varun Chakravarthy, Harshit Rana

England Squad:

Philip Salt (wk), Ben Duckett, Jos Buttler (c), Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone, Jacob Bethell, Jamie Overton, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Saqib Mahmood

INDIA-

Then, after being asked to bat, Abhishek Sharma hit Jofra Archer in the first over for a six and a four, but what awaited them in the second over was a horror show. The outrageous over came from Saqib Mahmood, playing a match for the first time in the series, who bowled a maiden and took three wickets and leave the home crowd in shock. Samson fell for another short ball as he pulled one to deep square leg and Homies as Tilak Varma fell for a first-baller as his attempt to come down the track against the pacer backfired. Things only got worse for India when their skipper Surya Kumar Yadav fell prey to the same trope and hit one straight to short mid-on in the same over that reduced India to 12/3 with no boundary scored.

Abhishek and the returning Rinku Singh, however, still took a positive approach to turn the momentum and it worked to an extent as the runs started flowing. However, in the 16th over against the run of play, a slog-sweep from Abhishek went straight to deep mid-wicket. And although Dube began with a flourish, England bowled a handful of tight overs to take charge of the contest. And when Rinku held onto a catch off the bowling of Brydon Carse, India had lost half their team and were in tatters at 87/5 with just 8 overs remaining in the innings. But from then on in, the nature of an excellent stand from Dube and Hardik that took England by surprise was such that they still breached 180.

Dube targeted Adil Rashid, while Hardik’s innings tapered off a little after a good start. At one stage the allrounder was on only 14 off 17 before assisting to find a couple of sixes off Mahmood to regain his mojo Hardik then proceeded to go on the attack as he hit sixes off Archer and Jamie Overton on the way to a 27-ball fifty. Dube too raced past fifty with boundaries off two balls in the penultimate over. Overton’s superb final over cost only three runs but that remarkable recovery would still have pleased India.

ENGLAND-

To square the series, England needed to amass their highest score of the tour so far. And Phil Salt did manage to survive the opening over from Arshdeep Singh for his part and then he collected a couple of boundaries. But it was Ben Duckett who put India under considerable pressure with drink runs in the over. Duckett was also defiant against the spinners after teeming a hat-trick of boundaries off Arshdeep, helping England post 62 in the powerplay. But on the last ball of the powerplay, the left-hander got a mighty top edge off Bishnoi, to leave for 39.

One wicket opened the floodgates for two others in quick succession as, once more, the spinners dragged India back into the game. Salt fell to an arm-ball from Axar Patel and the in-form Jos Buttler mis-hit another off Bishnoi to short-third. Rana then, making his first appearance in the XI, coming in for the concussed Dube, struck to break a flow of wickets by picking up the big wicket of Livingstone. The pacer who replaced Dube in a like-for-like manner did create a flutter for Rana and to take us England’s annoyance, he had a significant role in the final outcome.

But the visitors had a win available to them as Brook took charge of the game, taking on Rana for 18 off an over. He then raised a fifty off 25 balls and at that stage, England required 53 off 34 to get home. But once again wickets fell in clusters that cost them as Varun Chakaravarthy’s last over changed the match. Instead of playing out his nemesis in the series, Brook died trying to take on the spinner and Carse perished two balls later.

The writing was on the wall for England when Rana dismissed Jacob Bethell with a slower delivery. Overton at least gave them a glimmer of hope or two with some lusty blows, and Rashid then added a six for him to make the game go down to the wire. But their failures in the penultimate over cost England the chase as India went for the kill to ensure they have an addition to their home trophy cabinet.

Brief scores:

India 181/9 in 20 overs (Hardik Pandya 53, Shivam Dube 53; Saqib Mahmood 3/35) beat England 166 in 19.4 overs (Harry Brook 51; Ravi Bishnoi 3/28, Harshit Rana 3/33) by 15 runs.