Finance
India vs England 4th T20I: India beat England by 15 runs in Pune and thus confirmed a series win for themselves, taking an unassailable 3-1 lead. India recovered from being 12/3 in the second over to win the fourth T20I by 15 runs in Pune. The victory comes despite substantial criticism surrounding Harshit Rana’s selection as Shivam Dube’s concussion substitution. Rana seized the opportunity, returning statistics of 3/33.
Harry Brook was bowled by Varun Chakravarthy shortly after reaching the milestone, and Brydon Carse was also bowled in the same over to enable India edge ahead in the fourth T20I in Pune. Ben Duckett and Phil Salt had earlier had an opening combination of 62 runs in the powerplay before the former was dismissed by Ravi Bishnoi on the last ball of the sixth over. Axar responded by dismissing Salt and Bishnoi getting the big wicket of Jos Buttler. England are chasing a target of 182.
Jos Buttler, who won the toss for the first time in this series, put India in to bat first, and fast-bowling all-rounders Hardik Pandya and Shivam Dube saved them from a humiliating total by blazing half-centuries and leading the hosts to a score of 181/9. India had lost three wickets in the second over of their innings and were at 79/5 in the eleventh over. Pandya and Dube scored 87 runs off 45 balls for the sixth wicket. The former eventually dropped to 53 off 34 balls, while Dube went undefeated on 50 off 30.
Rinku Singh and Abhishek Sharma had previously chosen attack as the best method of defence for India, propelling them past the 50-run mark in the eighth over. Saqib Mahmood, bowling for the first time on this trip, began with two wickets off his first two deliveries and then added another in the same over in the fourth T20I between India and England in Pune. He therefore recorded a rare triple-wicket maiden, leaving India in a deep hole just 12 balls into the match.
Saqib dismissed Sanju Samson and Tilak Varma with his first two balls of the tour, while Suryakumar stumbled off the final ball. Jos Buttler finally won the toss after losing it three times in this series, and England will bowl first. India has replaced Dhruv Jurel and Mohammed Shami with Rinku Singh and Arshdeep Singh, respectively, and has recruited Shivam Dube to provide some firepower in the middle order in place of Washington Sundar.
This series has been a battle between India’s spinners versus England’s pacers, with batsmen on both sides blowing hot and cold. India easily won the first combat, while Tilak Varma almost kept England out of the second. In the third, however, even a five-wicket haul from Varun Chakravarthy was not enough for them to avoid defeat. England seem to have got increasingly better at winning in these conditions in their own way as the series progressed and so India would know that they have their task cut out as far as keeping their lead goes for the rest of this series.
Some of India’s batsmen will be in the spotlight today, particularly openers Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma. Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill, who will return to the T20 fold, are expected to threaten both of their spots. Samson had done more than enough to earn an extended run in the position prior to this series, with three hundreds in four innings. However, he appears to have been totally exposed by Jofra Archer and co. Abhishek Sharma delivered an outstanding performance in the first T20I but struggled in the second and third.
Captain Suryakumar Yadav went for a two-ball duck in the first T20I and then failed to capitalise on beginnings in the second and third. In his last six innings, he has scored only 52 runs. This is the first time he has gone six innings without scoring a fifty in T20Is. However, assistant coach Ryan Ten Doeschate has stated that India is unconcerned about this because such runs are unavoidable when batsmen take a high-risk approach.
“Someone like Surya has set such high standards [set] by himself, and I wouldn’t say consistency or predictability is a particularly high marker in T20 cricket,” ten Doeschate said. “The job we ask from these guys is to go out and score really quickly and the way the international T20 game has gone, we are allowed for a bit of consistency and a lean patch like he is going through at the moment.”
England’s strategy of throwing everything at the Indian bowlers, notably the spinners, nearly worked at Chepauk in the second T20I. Even if it hadn’t worked in Chennai, they would most likely have continued with similar strategy in Rajkot for the third T20I. This is the Bazball way. They have their work cut out for them in India, where they face a team that has won 15 of the last 18 T20Is since winning the 2024 T20 World Cup. India has also gone unbeaten in their previous 17 home T20I series, with their most recent setback coming in February 2019 against Australia.
Source: HT
