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5th over: England 49-1 (Duckett 38, Buttler 5) The offspinner Wsahington Sundar, who dismissed Duckett in Chennai, comes onto bowl. Duckett makes it five successive boundaries with a beautifully placed cover drive and a lofted reverse sweep. After a rare dot ball, Duckett comes the track to club a mighty straight six. This is blistering stuff.
Duckett survives an LBW review off the last ball of the over. He missed a reverse sweep but was hit well outside the line. Duckett has 38 from 14 balls; if he was 22 not out from 14 I very much doubt India would have reviewed it.
4th over: England 34-1 (Duckett 24, Buttler 5) Buttler takes a very tight single to mid-off. He played beautifully in the first two games but hasn’t yet found the middle of the bat.
Duckett is the opposite – he failed in the first two games but is off to a flyer tonight. He pulls Pandya brusquely for four, then backs away to flat bat the follow-up over cover. A ferocious clip over midwicket makes it three fours in a row and takes Duckett to 24 from 9 balls.
3rd over: England 21-1 (Duckett 12, Buttler 4) Buttler feels for a good delivery from Shami and is beaten. “Look at that seam position…” purrs Sunil Gavaskar on commentary.
Buttler clunks two back over the bowler’s head, then Duckett ramps six over the keeper’s head. That shot has become so common that it doesn’t even merit an exclamatiom mark any more.
2nd over: England 12-1 (Duckett 6, Buttler 1) A leg-stump inswinger is put away for four by Duckett. The sliding Washington got a touch on the ball but couldn’t stop it.
WICKET! England 7-1 (Salt c Abhishek b Hardik 5)
Phil Salt’s struggles continue. He smashes an off-cutter from Hardik straight to extra cover, where Abhishek takes a sharp catch with nonchalant ease. His weight wasn’t fully forward, possibly because the previous delivery was a sharp bouncer.
Salt’s scores in T20s against India are 8, 5, 0, 4 and 5. The sample size is too small to draw sweeping conclusions, especially as his IPL record is terrific.
1st over: England 6-0 (Salt 5, Duckett 1) After one ball from Shami, which beats Salt and keeps a bit low, Surkaykumar takes the slip out. Salt forces the next ball down the ground for four – he didn’t time it but the outfield looks pretty fast.
The slip goes back in for the last ball of the over, Duckett’s first, which he clips to midwicket for a single. It’s noticeable that Shami is bowling very straight.
Here come the players, including the England openers Phil Salt and Ben Duckett. Salt’s overall T20 record is outstanding but against India he has struggled: four innings, 17 runs at 4.25.
Australia begin their two-Test series in Sri Lanka tomorrow. Steve Smith, their stand-in captain, needs one run to reach 10,000 in Tests. Geoff Lemon has paid tribute.
“Good afternoon,” says John Starbuck. “Ever get the feeling England are drinking in the Last Chance Saloon? Let’s hope there’s a bar brawl on the way as we could do with the energy.”
Sambucas all round.
Team news
The great Mohammed Shami returns to international cricket for the first time since the 50-over World Cup final in November 2023. Arshdeep Singh is rested.
England have picked the same XI but Jamie Smith has a tight calf so he’ll keep wicket instead of Phil Salt.
India Samson (wk), Abhishek, Tilak, Suryakumar (c), Jurel, Hardik, Washington, Axar, Shami, Bishnoi, Chakravarthy.
England Salt, Duckett, Buttler (c), Brook, Livingstone, Smith (wk), Overton, Carse, Archer, Rashid, Wood.
India win the toss and bowl
That’s three in a row for Suryakumar Yadav, and bad news for England. Both captains think it looks like the best wicket of the series so far.
Mark Wood on his series so far
It’s great that my pace has been up there and I feel it’s coming out my hand well but the accuracy at times hasn’t been quite where I wanted it. But when I haven’t played since August, it’s pretty much expected – I’ve played two games since then. Hopefully the more I play, the better I get leading into the 50-over stuff and the Champions Trophy.
Preamble
Cold water is so damn hot right now. You can’t open a browser without seeing a feature on the abundant health benefits of freezing showers, ice baths and other forms of cold water immersion therapy. It can reduce inflammation, strengthen your immune system, improve blood flow and give you a newfound respect for lukewarm showers.
England may come to view this white-ball tour of India in a similar way. It’s been extremely uncomfortable so far, and one or two of their players would probably turn the shower off if they could. But in one sense it’s a great way to start the Bazball Nights era. India away is as tough as it gets; England should be a healthier team for the experience. They might even strengthen their immune system against quality spin bowling.
That’s the positive take. The negative is that they’ll be facing a whitewash if they lose today, that mystery spin is their Kryptonite in perpetuity, that Eoin Morgan’s team were outliers rather than trailblazers and that AI is going to kill us all by the year 2030.
England came very close to winning the second T20 international, thanks in part to an amazing individual performance from Brydon Carse, so they still have plenty of reasons to be cheerful. Winning the toss wouldn’t do any harm either.
The match begins at 1.30pm GMT.
