Varun Chakravarthy's five-wicket haul was wasted as England beat India by 26 runs in the third T20 match in Rajkot. With the win, England still have a chance to win the 5-match series after having lost the first two matches. Chasing a target of 172, India could only manage to score 145/9 in 20 overs. Hardik Pandya was the top-scorer with 40 off 35 balls.
Talking about the England bowlers, Jamie Overton took three wickets while Jofra Archer and Brydon Carse got two wickets each.
At the end of the match, England skipper Jos Butter said, The guys bowled really well, nice to show off their skills. Adil – he's the most important player in our team, so many variations, so many different styles of bowling, fortunate to have him in our team. Jofra – don't need to talk much about him – he's a super star, incredibly consistent, if he goes for 60 you know he'll come back well. Ben Duckett is a difficult guy to stop, that's why we felt he can do a job for us at the top. He played beautifully on what was a sticky pitch. 170 was a very good score, those wickets were crucial in the power play. 127-8 doesn't bother me, if they say you can be disappointed with the way you play and score 170, I'll take that.”
On the other hand, Indian skipper Suryakumar Yadav stated, “With Hardik-Axar batting and us needing 55 off 24, still felt we had the game in our hand. Credit to Adil Rashid, wanted to rotate strike, he didn't let us, that's why he hs a world class bowlers. We always learn from a T20 game, conceding 170 from 127 for 8 was too much.”
Despite India not winning Varun Chakravarthy was awarded the man of the match. He said, “Sad that we didn't make it in this match but that's the nature of the game, got to move on. Of course when you're playing for the country, got to take up some accountability, able to do it to a certain extent. Hope to do it well.”
India and England will play the next T-20 match in Pune on January 31.
