India vs England 2021, 5th T20I: Brilliant India Win T20I Series After Virat Kohli And Rohit Sharma Stun With Their Opening Partnership

The hosts India finally won the five-match T20I series against the visitors England after claiming a 36-run victory in the series decider match. After this last game of this series, India won this series by a 3-2 margin.

After England captain Eoin Morgan sent the hosts to bat first, India scored 224/2 in 20 overs. In reply, England scored 188/8 in 20 overs.

India vs England 2021, 5th T20I

2nd innings (England): Others failed to maintain Jos Buttler and Dawid Malan’s hard works

Pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar provided an impressive start for the Indian team in the second innings as he bowled Jason Roy for a duck on the second ball of that innings. But another opener Jos Buttler and Dawid Malan dominated the next stage of the game. While India scored 60/0 at the end of the powerplay, England scored 62/1 at the same time.

Both Buttler and Malan were very dangerous with the bat. While Buttler reached the 50-run mark in 30 balls, Malan earlier completed it in 33 balls. They set up the 130 runs partnership for the second wicket with the run-rate just over 10.00. But once that partnership was broken, the other England failed to handle the pressure of the continuous rising of the required run-rates.

Once again, Bhuvneshwar Kumar brought the breakthrough by dismissing Buttler for 52 off 34 balls (2 fours and 4 sixes). Since then, England lost their wickets at regular intervals, including Malan was the fourth batsman to get dismiss in that innings after scoring 68 off 46 balls (9 fours and 2 sixes) as Shardul Thakur bowled him. No other England batsmen managed to reach even the 15-run mark in that innings.

Shardul Thakur had bowling figures of 4-0-45-3. However, Bhuvneshwar Kumar was more incredible as his bowling figures were 4-0-15-2. Hardik Pandya (1/34) and T Natarajan (1/39) were their other bowlers who get at least one wicket in that innings.

1st innings (India): Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma set up the innings strongly, Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya brought proper support

Indian captain Virat Kohli and limited-overs vice-captain Rohit Sharma opened the Indian innings which was also their first-ever T20I opening partnership but a second-time international opening partnership. It was a huge success for the Indian team as they set up the 94 runs partnership for the opening wicket. Rohit fired up against the English bowlers and completed his fifty in 30 balls. Ben Stokes finally brought the breakthrough for the visitors after he bowled Rohit for 64 off 34 balls (4 fours and 5 sixes).

Skipper Kohli continued his impressive batting performance. He and Suryakumar Yadav continued the strong situation for the Indian team as they quickly added 49 runs partnership for the second wicket. Adil Rashid got the wicket of Yadav, who scored 32 off 17 balls (3 fours and 2 sixes) but Chris Jordan and Jason Roy duo spectacularly ended his innings.

Then Kohli and Hardik Pandya set up the 81 runs partnership for the unbroken third-wicket, including adding 67 runs in the last five overs, which helped the hosts to build up their fourth-highest T20I total. Kohli reached the 50-run mark in 36 balls and continued his batting till the end of that innings.

Kohli remained not out on 80 off 52 balls (7 fours and 2 sixes) while Hardik scored 39 not out off 17 balls with the help of 4 fours and 2 sixes.

Three English pacers, Jofra Archer (0/43), Mark Wood (0/53) and Chris Jordan (0/57), were very expensive after completing their four-over quotas. Adil Rashid (1/31) and Ben Stokes (1/26) were their only wicket-takers in this match.

Brief Scores: India – 224/2 in 20 overs (Virat Kohli 80*, Rohit Sharma 64; Ben Stokes 1/26)

England – 188/8 in 20 overs (Dawid Malan 68, Jos Buttler 52; Shardul Thakur 3/45)

Result – India won by 36 runs