England vs India 2018, 2nd T20I, Cardiff: 5 talking points as England beat India by 5 wickets 

After losing the first T20I in Manchester, England bounced back strongly in the second T20I in Cardiff as they beat India by five wickets to level the three-match series 1-1.

After put into bat, India were off to a disastrous start as they lost the wickets of Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul early. Suresh Raina and Virat Kohli steadied the ship and thanks to some late blitz from MS Dhoni towards the end, India ended up scoring 148/5 in their 20 overs.

Chasing a par total on a slow-paced wicket, England found themselves in deep trouble before Alex Hales, Eoin Morgan and Jonny Bairstow took their team to safety. Hales saw off the Indian wrist spinners and thanks to his unbeaten 58, took his team home with two balls to spare.

#5 Shocking start to India's innings

Rohit miscued the pull

India were inserted in by Eoin Morgan and the start was just what the England captain would have wanted.

Rohit Sharma tried to force the issue, he wanted to pull a short of a length ball away, but was only able to get the top edge. The ball went up high in the air, and Jos Buttler settled down under the skier and gobbled up the catch clean.

Shikhar Dhawan was the next to go, and he was a tad unfortunate, or a tad careless, he bunted the ball to point, too off for a single, but then did not drag his bat in, and after numerous replays the third umpire adjudged him out.

India were reeling, but they still had KL Rahul and Virat Kohli in the centre. However, it did not last for too long.

Liam Plunkett bowled a length ball, Rahul wanted to drive it on the up over covers, but missed the ball, and had his stumps dislodged for only six runs.

A shocking start for India as they never got going in the first six overs and could only muster 31 runs in the first six over and lost three wickets.

#4 Blazing end to India's innings

India were struggling to get any momentum in their innings as they constantly kept losing wickets right through the innings.

However, the final over allowed MS Dhoni and Hardik Pandya to impose some sort of control as they took 22 runs off Jake Ball which pushed India's score to 148.

MS Dhoni read the length and decided to slam the ball back down the pitch, as the ball was short of a good length.

Hardik Pandya turned the strike over and allowed Dhoni to take it to Ball and India slammed 22 runs to give their bowlers a good total to bowl at.

#3 Persistent with back of a length delivery

The dimensions of Sophia Gardens is such that the straight boundaries are very short and the square boundaries are quite big.

Thus, the England bowlers persistent with a back of a length strategy which forced the Indian batsmen to look to the cross-batted strokes in order to guard the short straight boundaries.

They were also rewarded with the wickets of Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul and were also successful in containing the other batsmen too.

The Indian bowlers too followed the same strategy and looked to contain the hosts and banged the ball on a length in the initial overs.

#2 Spin challenges England again

The pitch was sluggish and the bowlers were often resorting bowling cutters and tested the surface.

Hence, when Virat Kohli brought on the spinners, the challenge was always going to be tough for the hosts. Yuzvendra Chahal got rid of Joe Root when he attempted to slog sweep a ball, but failed to pick the googly.

Kuldeep Yadav was at it again, the English batsmen found it difficult to decipher his spin. They decided to play their strokes against him and were quite successful, even though not very dominating.

In his final over, Jonny Bairstow decided to go for the monty and played two expansive slog sweeps and cleared the square leg fence with ease to make the job easier for his side.

#1 Alex Hales does the job for England

After the struggle in the previous game, Alex Hales turned up for England and got the job done for them with a brilliant 58 to seal the deal for the hosts.

He rotated the strike in the middle overs, saw off the threat of the spinners, even played a few aggressive strokes and then slammed two boundaries in the final over to lead England past the target.

Hales kept calm when the going was tough and then got the big strokes away when it mattered to get the job done for his side.