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5th over: India 37-3 (Abhishek 21, Rinku 13) Carse comes on for Archer. Rinku hacks a boundary over the keeper’s head, then muscles another through midwicket. The first was fortunate, the second a terrific shot.
4th over: India 28-3 (Abhishek 20, Rinku 5) Abhishek times Saqib through extra cover for two boundaries in three balls, one off each foot. Exquisite batting. Even by the standards of young Indian batters, Abhishek is amazingly talented.
3rd over: India 19-3 (Abhishek 11, Rinku 5) Rinku Singh charges Archer, turning a full ball into a half-volley that he can blaze to the cover boundary. Cracking shot.
2nd over: India 12-3 (Abhishek 10, Rinku 0) Since the start of the T20 series in the Caribbean last year Saqib has taken 12 wickets at an average of 7.93, with a strike rate – and you’ll like this – of a wicket every eight balls.
WICKET! India 12-3 (Suryakumar c Carse b Saqib 0)
Saqib Mahmood has bowled a triple-wicket maiden! Suryakumar survived the hat-trick ball but flicked his fourth straight to short mid-on. Astonishing.
WICKET! India 12-2 (Varma c Archer b Saqib 0)
Tilak Varma is the new batter, which is a deviation from their coach Gautam Gambhir’s preference for a left/right combination.
He’s the old batter, too, because he’s gone first ball! Varma charged Saqib and sliced the ball down to third man, where Archer took an excellent low catch. Saqib Mahmood has figures of 0.2-0-0-2!
Samson’s series has been a story of diminishing returns: 26, 5, 3 and now 1.
WICKET! India 12-1 (Samson c Carse b Saqib 1)
Saqib Mahmood strikes first ball! Samson, who is having a miserable series, flick-pulls straight into the hands of Carse at backward square.
1st over: India 12-0 (Samson 1, Abhishek 10) Archer’s first ball is a sharp nipbacker that hits Samson in the stomach. A fierce cut is brilliantly stopped by Duckett at backward point, saving three runs in the process.
Abhishek takes the fielders out of the equation by slapping a mighty cut for six to get off the mark. To get off the mark. He flat bats four more wide of mid-off to make it 10 from the last two balls of the over.
Jofra Archer will open the bowling to Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma.
The square boundaries are relatively short in Pune, so it’ll be interesting to see whether England stick with the heavy length they bowled so successfully in Rajkot.
Team news
Jacob Bethell and Saqib Mahmood come into the England team in place of Jamie Smith and Mark Wood.
India make three changes: Arshdeep Singh, who was rested in the third T20I, Rinku Singh and Shivam Dube are preferred to Mohammed Shami, Dhruv Jurel and Washington Sundar.
India Samson (wk), Abhishek, Varma, Suryakumar (c), Hardik, Dube, Rinku, Axar, Arshdeep, Bishnoi, Chakravarthy.
England Salt (wk), Duckett, Buttler (c), Brook, Livingstone, Bethell, Overton, Carse, Archer, Rashid, Saqib.
England win the toss and bowl
Jos Buttler has called correctly for the first time on tour, which means England will chase for the first time in the series.
Ben Duckett on England’s win in Rajkot
It’s a big moment for this team because it could have gone a different way. Credit to the guys for doing exactly what [Brendon McCullum] wants us to go and do. It’s to entertain. At times it’s not going to work, and that’s fine. But we could easily be 2-1 up in the series if things had gone a little bit better for us at the back end of the second game.
Preamble
Hello and welcome to episode four of Bazball Nights, England’s new white-ball spin-off. So far it’s been great fun, with episodes devoted to mystery spin, raw pace and tediously extended metaphors and canny left-arm seam.
England won superbly in Rajkot to keep the series alive, when their counter-intuitive decision to pick four genuinely quick bowlers paid off; another win today would set up a series decider at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday. And even if they lose, the cricket will never, ever be dull.
The match starts at 1.30pm
