Alex Hales played a fine knock as he remained unbeaten on 58 of 41 balls. England kept nerves in the nail-biting finish. The hero of 18th over became an anti-hero in the last over. Well, that's T20 all about.England batsmen seemed to have done their homework against the spin-duo of Chahal and Kuldeep. The Indian team fell short by 15-25 runs in the first innings.Overall, a good game of cricket; the better team (England) wins today. The series is levelled 1-1.Here, we end our coverage tonight | Do join us for the next T20I to take place at Bristol | PS: MS Dhoni turns 37 today!
Bhuvneshwar Kumar to bowl the last ball. Hales hits a SIX! over the bowler's head. Alex Hales reaches his HALF-CENTURY! A mini-conference (Kohli, Rohit, Rahul, and Bhuvi) in the middle.Bhuvi shortens the length, Hales connects the pull; the ball travels for a FOUR! beating the fine-leg fielder. A single on the next ball. A short delivery, Willey pulls it away for a FOUR! towards the deep-midwicket boundary; however, they complete a single before the ball crosses the ropes, hence a single is counted. England WIN! Series Level 1-1.
Umesh Yadav to bowl-out his quota. A yorker length delivery, Willey dabs and looks to steal a single; Umesh runs towards the stumps and negates any chance; a dot ball. A single on the next ball.A superb yorker-length ball from Umesh here, Hales misses it; a dot ball. Another yorker-length delivery, Hales squeezes it towards the third-man region. ENG steal two runs. Third Umpire brought in to check a run-out appeal there.Another yorker-length delivery, Hales connects it well and finds a gap through the cover region for FOUR! A single on the last ball of the over.ENG need 12 runs to win; Bhuvi has 12 to defend -- Whose game is it?
Bhuvneshwar Kumar brought back. Can he weave a magic for India here?A short-ball first up, Bairstow plays a short-arm pull and the ball flies to the diving fielder running from the fine-leg position. Bairstow is CAUGHT OUT! David Willey is the new man in. FOW: 126/5 | Jonny Bairstow: 28 (18).A good bouncer here; a single taken. A length ball next, Hales looks to pull but misses; dot ball. A single towards the short-third-man, next.Willey makes space, and Bhuvi follows him. The ball is rapped on the pads; a dot ball here. A full-length ball, Willey fails to connect; ENG steal a LEG-BYE!
Kuldeep Yadav continues. A single on the first ball. Bairstow strikes a SIX! with a brutal sweep shot. Another ball, another SIX! Similar one. A couple of singles on the next two balls. A single to end the over. ENG NEED 23 RUNS OF 18 BALLS!
Pandya to continue. A single on the first ball. A dot ball and a couple of runs on the next two balls. A dot ball and a couple of singles on the next two balls, again. A couple of runs to ends the over.
Kuldeep gets a change of ends. A dot ball to begin with. Four consecutive singles on the next four balls. A dot ball to end the over.
Pandya brought back. Eoin Morgan is CAUGHT OUT! on the first ball here. A super-stunning mind-boggling catch by Shikhar-THE-ONE (Dhawan) on the here! Does this bring India back into the match? Morgan looked to play the pull shot, but a tumbling Dhawan sends him packing. Jonny Bairstow is the new man in. FOW: 92/4 | Eoin Morgan: 17 (19).A double, perhaps a run-out chance missed, here. A couple of singles, next. A double on the last ball to end the over.
Chahal continues. A couple of singles on the first two balls. Morgan goes for a full-bloodied sweep for a FOUR! even a diving Pandya couldn't save the boundary. A single is followed by a couple of dot balls to end the over.
Kuldeep continues. A double on the first ball. Morgan skips down the track hits it over the bowler's head for FOUR! A single on the next ball.Kuldeep bowls a wrong'un and nearly takes out Hales, as he fails to read the ball and misses; a dot ball. A dot ball next. Hales hits the last ball for a HUGE SIX! over the long-on boundary to end the over.
The Indian team, under the captaincy of Virat Kohli, have begun their England tour with a thumping win over the host team, and as both the teams are scheduled to go head-on on Friday, it will be an intriguing watch as to which team will come out on the top! Will the Indian team attain an unassailable lead in the second Twenty20 International (T20I) match or will England manage to pull things in their favour?
India won the first T20I at Manchester cruising through the run chase with much ease, courtesy an explosive and unbeaten 101* by KL Rahul. India needed 160 runs to win and after an initial hiccup, as Shikhar Dhawan was castled in the first over, the Indian team rode to victory riding on the partnership between Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul.
Earlier, it was Kuldeep Yadav’s majestic wrist-spin that put breaks on England’s acceleration in the first T20I. Kuldeep Yadav took 3 wickets in an over to put halt to England’s march which seemed to cross the 200-run mark at one stage. Yadav ended the match with figures of 4-0-24-5 and also pipped KL Rahul to be the ‘Man of the Match’.
Come Friday, India would be looking to wrap the series at Cardiff itself; whereas the England team would be looking forward to level the series. Kohli would be in a selection dilemma again, while on the other hand, the England team would be looking to solve the Kuldeep Yadav mystery.
Squads:
Full India T20I Squad:
Virat Kohli (c), Deepak Chahar, MS Dhoni, Siddharth Kaul, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Hardik Pandya, Lokesh Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shikhar Dhawan, Dinesh Karthik, Kuldeep Yadav, Manish Pandey, Krunal Pandya, Suresh Raina, and Umesh Yadav.
Full England T20I Squad:
Eoin Morgan (c), Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler (wk), Tom Curran, Chris Jordan, Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, Moeen Ali, Jake Ball, Sam Curran, Alex Hales, Liam Plunkett, Joe Root, and David Willey.
The second T20 match between India and England will take place at Sophia Gardens, in Cardiff. The match is scheduled to be played on July 6, 2018, with the starting time at 10.00 pm (IST), whereas the Toss will take place 30 minutes prior to it. The fans can catch the live telecast and online streaming details of the second T20I between India and England here.