England Beat India By 8 Wickets In 3rd T20I, Lead Series 2-1
Jos Buttler powered England to an eight-wicket victory over India on Tuesday, with the tourists taking a 2-1 lead in their five-match Twenty20 series despite a sparkling inning from Virat Kohli.
India 156/6 in 20 overs (V Kohli 77 not out, R Pant 25, M Wood 3/31) lost to England 158/2 in 18.2 overs (J Buttler 83 not out, J Bairstow 40 not out)
India vs England 3rd T20I Match Report
England captain Eoin Morgan won a crucial toss. The side that has batted first has lost every game so far.
England's pace attack quickly stunned the Indian batters with Mark Wood dismissing openers Rohit Sharma and K.L. Rahul and Chris Jordan claiming the wicket of Ishan Kishan in a crucial three-over spell.
The India captain added 40 runs with Rishabh Pant for the fourth wicket in just under six overs to bring India's innings back on track.
Pant was run out and Shreyas Iyer followed soon after. But Kohli added 70 runs for the sixth wicket with Hardik Pandya (17 off 15 balls), who surprisingly played second fiddle.
The home skipper's 77-run blitz revived India after a poor start and saw them to 156-6 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, which was kept empty because of the rising number of coronavirus cases in India. India made 69 in the last five overs with the majority of those runs coming off Kohli's bat.
Chasing a 157-run target, England began well raising 23 for the first wicket before Jason Roy (9 off 13) was dismissed.
However, Buttler (83 off 52 balls, 5x4s, 4x6s) kept up the charge as England took 14 off Chahal's first over -- the innings' fourth -- and followed it up with 16 runs in the fifth over of the innings bowled by Shardul Thakur.
Jonny Bairstow contributed an unbeaten 40 -- taking him past 1,000 runs in T20 internationals -- to give England an emphatic win in captain Eoin Morgan's 100th T20I.
Buttler carried his bat through the run chase to guide England to 158 for two with 10 balls to spare. With the victory, England took a 2-1 lead in the five-match series.