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This was a night of push and pull in Chennai, of a match undecided until the final hit, the 20-over game at its best, initially belonging to Brydon Carse but ending in the arms of Tilak Varma. The India batter was both responsible and electric in a chase of 166, an unbeaten 55-ball 72 providing his side with a 2-0 lead in this five-match series with England.
Carse threatened to be the match-winner, his 17-ball 31 followed by three crowd-silencing wickets. With India requiring 40 from 30, but with just three wickets in hand, the match was turning towards the visitors. With Jofra Archer’s heat to take in once again, Varma had much to do.
But he had used it well earlier in the innings, and he would do so again at the death. A top-edge for six was fortunate, a guide over the rope behind point the next ball outstanding, the England quick consigned to final figures of one for 60 off his four overs. Varma was responsible for half that tally.
The drama didn’t relent there as Adil Rashid dismissed Arshdeep Singh at the end of a miserly 17th over, the strike now needing serious management from the only remaining batter. But the nerves were held alongside Ravi Bishnoi – nine crucial runs off five – as Varma threaded Jamie Overton through the covers, a memorable victory settled with four balls to spare.
It had begun like a Wednesday rerun. India added Washington Sundar to their spin attack from the series opener, ready to capitalise on England’s aversion to twirl. The offie all-rounder was into the game early, holding on at deep backward square as Arshdeep, once again, dismissed Phil Salt in the opening over. Ben Duckett went cheaply too, the innings resting on Jos Buttler.
Buttler was immense, just as he was in the first T20. He took sixes off Arshdeep, Sundar and Bishnoi, welcoming the slow stuff in a thoroughly un-English manner. At 58 for two, England could be pleased with their powerplay.
But the introduction of Varun Chakravarthy was always going to be key, his whizzing googly having undone Harry Brook three days previous. Straight away there was a tight lbw appeal against Buttler, and then came the sequel to his deception in Kolkata. Brook was mystified by the ball sneaking past his forward prod, the off-bail removed, the pained smile an admission of comprehensive defeat to the wrong ‘un.
Buttler then fell to Axar’s dartish tempters: what might read as a long hop climbs on to the batter, prompting a miscue. Buttler found deep midwicket off the left-armer on 45, while Liam Livingstone’s pull off the same bowler also went wrong.
With England five down inside 12 overs, the old-world method would have been to consolidate, to ease up for a bit before a late slog. But this side’s alpha mantra demands six-hitting when in despair, so they did not relent. Jamie Smith, on debut, struck Chakravarthy over long-off off his fourth ball and initially enjoyed Abhishek Sharma’s left-arm spin before falling to the part-timer for a 12-ball 22.
Carse went aerial, too, managing to decode Chakravarthy with consecutive sixes. But England would have to settle for a respectable total, not an imposing one, early success with the ball required for a contest.
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Sharma, presumably still bouncing from his 34-ball 79 the other night, responded with three off-side boundaries off Jofra Archer. But Mark Wood, who turned 35 this month, remains a marvel, doing things with his body that make you fear for every muscle and bone. Wood clocked 92mph when thumping Sharma’s pad for the first strike. Sanju Samson’s pull found Carse in the deep. England’s rockets-only approach was working.
But Suryakumar Yadav and Varma, another in India’s Oasis-ticket-queue of batting talents, began to use the speed to their advantage. Varma played the shot of the evening, getting on to one knee to help Archer over fine leg for six.
Carse intervened, his skiddy and cramping pace shifting the rhythm. He had Yadav dragging on to his stumps, before Adil Rashid began economically. Carse then had Dhruv Jurel pulling to the substitute Rehan Ahmed at midwicket to leave India 66 for four.
Overton’s bounce had Hardik Pandya nicking to Salt before Rashid twirled away with wonderful switches in speed. But the leg-spinner crucially erred in the field, dropping Sundar at mid-on off Wood with 70 required; the southpaw responded with a flurry of thrashes in the same over, 18 taken off it to bring India back in as favourites.
Carse, once more, had an answer, a cross-seamer thudded in on a length rattling Sundar’s stumps to leave India needing 47 off the final six. Axar then holed out to Livingstone with five overs remaining. But Tilak remained too, right till the very end.
