Jasprit Bumrah held his nerve to defend eight runs off the last over to give India a thrilling 5-run victory in the second Twenty20 International against England at Nagpur on Sunday. Chasing 144/8, England looked in the hunt at one stage and needed only more than run-a-ball in the last over but Bumrah bowled a fantastic last over, giving away only 2 runs to give India the series-levelling victory.
England got off to a quiet start with only seven runs in two overs. Sam Billings and Jason Roy broke the shackles with a six each off Yuzvendra Chahal but Ashish Nehra put a stop to that by taking out the openers in consecutive deliveries to leave England at 22/2.
Eoin Morgan and Joe Root looked at consolidation more than aggression as they put on a 43-run partnership in 41 deliveries. But just when England would have wanted to go for the big shots, Amit Mishra got the breakthrough accounting for Morgan with a googly. He should have also had Ben Stokes after going through his defence but bowled a no-ball.
The asking rate though was hovering close to nine and England found it difficult to get the big hits against the spinners. Ben Stokes finally managed to get the big over his team needed hitting Suresh Raina for a boundary and a six in the 14th over of the chase as England got the equation down to 52 needed off 36.
The following over, Stokes kept England surging by hitting Chahal for a six and taking 11 off the over. It was a cool, vital knock under pressure from the all-rounder as he ran hard and picked up the runs required to take England closer. But he was undone by some clever thinking from Ashish Nehra, who, brought back into the attack in the 17th over, gave away four dot balls and then had Stokes dismissed leg-before-wicket.
Jasprit Bumrah then firmly turned the match India’s way by bowling a superb over, deceiving the new batsman Jos Buttler and Root repeatedly with his changes of pace. He gave away only three runs in the all-important 18th over. England fought back yet again in the next over taking 16 runs off it to leave themselves with 8 runs off 6 balls.
Joe Root was given out to a dreadful decision off the first ball and Bumrah starred from there on. He conceded a single to Moeen Ali, then a dot and bowled Buttler. Chris Jordan ran another bye and with six runs to go, Ali missed. Bumrah conceded only two off the last over to give India tense five-run victory.
Brief scores:
India 144/8 in 20 overs (KL Rahul 71, Manish Pandey 30; Chris Jordan 3/22, Moeen Ali 1/20) beat England 139/6 in 20 overs (Ben Stokes 38, Joe Root 38; Nehra 3/28, Bumrah 2/20)
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