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On the day of the decider in Bristol, skipper Virat Kohli elected to field first after winning the toss. To everyone’s surprise, India dropped an in-form Kuldeep Yadav and an injured Bhuvneswar Kumar had to be left out. Deepak Chahar made his debut and Siddarth Kaul was roped in as the third pace bowler.
England made full use of a lean Indian bowling attack and attacked right from the word go. Both Jos Buttler and Jason Roy plundered the Indian bowlers in the powerplay and amassed 73 runs in 6 overs.
India needed to peg the scoring back and the onus was on Yuzvendra Chahal to do so. Chahal, despite not picking up wickets, kept the boundaries in check and this helped in the dismissal of Jos Buttler who was bowled by Siddarth Kaul for a well-made 34.
A fiery looking Jason Roy was dismissed in the 10th over and suddenly India was right in the game at 103-2. Eoin Morgan and Alex Hales struck around for a while but the pressure of keeping up to the run-rate got the better of him as he miscued one in the air to be grabbed by MS Dhoni, who had a field day in the office.
India kept chipping away with wickets at regular intervals and at one stage what looked like an ominous first innings score for England ended up with a below par 198/9 in 20 overs.
Hardik Pandya was the pick of the bowlers with 4 wickets, while Siddarth Kaul picked up 2 wickets. Umesh Yadav and Deepak Chahar picked up 1 wicket apiece but were expensive.
India had a stiff target to chase and if there was one man who needed to step up to the occasion, it was Rohit Sharma and the Mumbaikar just did so. Right from the word go, Rohit Sharma showed signs of his classical batting that had everything - fierce cuts and pulls aided by deft touches left England bowlers in dismay.
Despite losing Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul early, Rohit along with Virat Kohli kept the run scoring in touch with the required run rate. The duo never looked in trouble and a boundary was scored in every over.
Rohit Sharma went along his merry way and reached a wonderful century in just 56 deliveries. This innings comprised of 11 boundaries and 5 maximums to the fence. Not to forget the support lent by skipper Virat Kohli, who scored a fluent 43 of 29 deliveries, which took the pressure of Rohit Sharma.
Some lusty hits by Hardik Pandya (33* of 14) ensured India reached the target of 199 in 18.4 overs. With this, India won the 3rd T20I as well as the Vitality T20I series.
The Man of the Match and the Man of the Series award was given to Rohit Sharma who mentioned: "This is my style of play, assessing the conditions and playing according to it. We felt the pitch was good to bat on and I held my shape while playing big shots. I didn’t want to panic because once you spend time you can play big shots."
A dejected Eoin Morgan remarked: "We had a great start with the bat but didn’t do justice in the end. We fell short by 20-30 runs. India bowled really well and on a small ground, we were expected to score more runs. It’s hard to defend on such a small ground and we shall learn as we go on. This series has produced three completely different results and hopefully, we will improve."
An elated Virat Kohli said: "I felt the comeback from our bowlers was outstanding, we thought they would reach around 225-230 and I am really proud of the characters shown by our bowlers. Rohit was obviously special but the standout was Hardik. The pitch was flat and we enjoyed our time with the bat. We shall try different things with the batting order and bowling and it's always great to start the tour with a series win."
With this, India wins their 3rd consecutive overseas T20I series and social media went ballistic after India’s triumph. Here are the reactions:
Suresh Raina:
Sachin Tendulkar:
Sanjay Manjrekar:
Michael Vaughan:
Mohandas Menon:
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