SKY’s valiant knock goes in vain as England avert whitewash

Who doesn’t like a Sunday filled with entertainment and that too in the extraordinary hour where the blues are just kicking in about the forthcoming Monday and you simply want time to stop? Time did come to a standstill under a bright and sunny sky at Trent Bridge as India staged a miraculous turnaround of events, riding high on a SKY of their own, who played a knock for the ages to come.

Jos Buttler won the toss and opted to bat first and a changed Indian bowling lineup had no answer whatsoever to the might of the English openers. Jos Buttler brought out the heavy artillery early in the innings while Dawid Malan led the charge thereafter.

Despite wickets coming at regular intervals, England’s hard-hitting stance made India pretty uncomfortable as the visiting bowlers struggled to find their stride. As England continued with their onslaught, it would be Harshal Patel and Ravi Bishnoi with the only probable decent figures in the Indian bowling shed.

Chasing 215, the visitors started wobbling early the cream of the Indian batting order was removed in no time with Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Rishabh Pant back in the pavilion while the score read 31 for the loss of 3. It was Suryakumar Yadav who would take over the reins and totally flipped the complexion of the contest.

One of the most technically accurate innings laced with ingenuity and gumption saw SKY playing those perfectly-stitched strokes in the face of impending catastrophe. Despite Shreyas Iyer not really able to pump out his best, he would hang around for quite a while to help India reach within touching distance of the finishing line.

However, the fall of Shreyas Iyer opened up Pandora’s box for the visitors as there was no one further to arrest the decline and the Men in blue would eventually fall short by 17 runs, allowing England to reduce the arrears in an already clinched series.

Reece Topley was awarded the man of the match for figures of 3 for 22 while Bhuvneshwar Kumar was awarded the man of the series award for his cracking performance with the ball that forced England to retreat in the two opening T20Is.

The T20I series came to a close with a string of extraordinary showdowns as both the teams squeezed their hearts out with the Indians dishing out a superlative display on the road, clinching the all-important series against England. The next stop for Team India is the Oval where they will be playing the opening ODI of the series that is slated to be played tomorrow.