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1 hour ago
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Key events
10th over: India 71-3 ( Shreyas Iyer 24, Shivam 10) They take DRINKS at half way through the innings – Shreyas and Shivam have locked down and built a platform – can they blast off? . A boundary in that over from Tongue – four for Shivam through the covers.
9th over: India 64-3 ( Shreyas Iyer 22, Shivam 5) Tip and run to Sam Curran as India lick their wounds.
8th over: India 58-3 ( Iyer 19, Shivam 2) Brook pulls out his Archer trump card. Just a leg bye and a single until the last ball – when Iyer bends right down as if squatting to do a head over heels, lifts his bat and upper cuts for six.
7th over: India 50-3 ( Iyer 13, Shivam 1) Time for the rebuild. Captain’s knock?
WICKET! Abhishek c and b Rashid 16 (India 48-3)
Fabulous caught and bowled by Rashid, who detours from his follow through to collect another mis-pull-slog off his own bowling, beating Buttler into the covers.
6th over: India 43-2 (Abhishek 14, Iyer 9) The final slot of the power play falls to Sam Curraan. He wipes the sweat from his face – it’s still ferociously hot – and scampers (does he do anything else?) in. A tidy over, apart from a back foot dreamy, wristy thing of wonder from Iyer that beats a diving Bethell.
5th over: India 37-2 (Abhishek 13, Iyer 4) Josh Tongue changes ends with immediate results. A wafty gentle flick brings four for Iyer – more of that, less of the heave-ho.
WICKET! Ishan Curran c b Tongue (India 33-2)
This time it’s Ishan done to the short ball, flinging the bat wildly and squirting to short third. This is all a bit haphazard. Gambir chews a white ball in the dugout.
4th over: India 32-1 (Abhishek 12, Ishan 4) Will Jacks shimmies through an over. Abhishek pushes with one finger at the door and eases the most perfect cover drive all the way to the rope.
3rd over: India 24-1 (Abhishek 6, Ishan 1) Not quite working for Sooryavanshi yet here in England, he looks to the skies and pulls off his helmet, shaggy teenage hair hanging in disappointment.
WICKET! Sooryavanshi c Curran b Archer 15 (India 23-1)
A big hit too many, squares up his body and throws the bat at a ball creeping up on him– the ball shimmies at the moon before falling into the hands of Curran at mid on.
2nd over: India 20-0 (Sooryavanshi 15, Abhishek 6) Josh Tongue’s first over is more costly – both batters slam him back over extra cover for four, Sooryavanshi perching on tip toes as he goes. Then Sooryavanshi fullstops Tongue’s work with a delicate, seemingly effortless, upper cut for six.
1st over: India 5-0 (Sooryavanshi 3, Abhishek 1) Jofra Archer from the pavilion end. Starts with a wide – and Sooryavanshi swings but can only pick up a single from the second. A single to Abhishek follows. Archer is bowling clever here. A reckless pull from Sooryavanshi lumbers towards the rope and is caught up by a chasing Adil Rashid.
The players are out, the sun beats down – let’s play!
If England win today and on Saturday they go top of the world. Amidst the rubble of the red-ball team, the white ball team is quietly on the up. Perhaps a white ball only transition is the next step for Baz McCullum . Meanwhile, if India lose, it will be the first time they have ever lost two back to back T20 series.
India XI
India: Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Ishan Kishan (wk), Shreyas Iyer (c), Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Prince Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna
England XI
England: Phil Salt, Jos Buttler (wk), Harry Brook (c), Jacob Bethell, Tom Banton, Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Rehan Ahmed, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Josh Tongue.
India win the toss and will bat!
Shreyas Iyer says he is going to have a bat, tactially India need to be up to the mark. Surface looks good. Two changes – Washington Sundar and Prasidh Krisha replace Harshit Rana and Varun Chakravarthy, who are both injured.
Harry Brook would have batted too. He says England “played awesome” at Trent Bridge. More of the same, he urges. One change: Rehan Ahmed replaces Liam Dawson.
Preamble
Hello! Come swelter with me as we watch England and India roll into match four of this under-the radar T20 series.
Today, it’s Bristol: England with a spring in their step and an unassailable two-nil lead, India with some red faces after a record international T20 defeat - bowled out for 76 in 11.4 overs at Trent Bridge. So far the Vaibhav Sooryavanshi fireworks have failed to spark – bounced out for 13 by Jofra Archer at Trent Bridge and stumped for 14 at Old Trafford. Will he light the touch paper today? Join me to find out. Toss soon, start of play 5.30BST.
