Nottingham, July 8: Indian batters produced one of their worst performance in recent times, surrendering meekly to England’s tearaway quicks Jofra Archer and Josh Tongue’s hostile spells in a record 125-run loss in the third T20 International here.
Archer (3/29) and Tongue (4/28) bowled with a lot of fire inside the Powerplay which led to India being shot out for 76 runs in 11.4 overs in pursuit of 202 on Tuesday.
This was India’s worst T20I defeat in terms of margin of runs as only four batters managed double-digit scores here.
The win gave England an unassailable 2-0 lead in the five-match series as the first match was abandoned due to rain.
Captain Shreyas Iyer’s winless streak has now extended to five games and this Indian team under Gautam Gambhir’s stewardship looks a disjointed unit.
It wasn’t a pretty sight as birthday boy Mahendra Singh Dhoni watched his favourite team get dismantled one over at a time.
England’s 201 for 7 was largely based on opener Phil Salt’s 70 and Sam Curran’s unbeaten 41 in a late assault.
The match as a contest was over once India were reduced to 52 for 5 in five overs. The performance was marked by poor shot selection and an apparent lack of will to fight.
Add to it the baffling tactical calls. A hit-and-miss slogger like Harshit Rana was sent No. 7 inside the Powerplay ahead of Shivam Dube, something that is bound to raise eyebrows.
The 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi once again hit a couple of sixes – one each off Archer and Tongue – but his 13-run knock ended in just five deliveries.
Before Sooryavanshi’s dismissal, Abhishek Sharma was holed out at the deep extra cover, an area where he has been dismissed a few times.
Ishan Kishan hooked one for a six but was out in no time while Iyer tried to flick Archer and picked the only fielder behind square. Axar Patel expected a short ball and got a fuller length to edge one behind stumps.
Earlier, Salt overcame initial jitters to smash his way to a 44-ball-70 as England posted a competitive 201 for 7 which proved to be enough in the end.
The Indian pace unit put up a reasonably impressive show with the Delhi duo of Rana (2/40) and Prince Yadav (2/30) picking up wickets at crucial junctures but same couldn’t be said about veteran spinners Axar (1/49) and Varun Chakravarthy (0/35 in 3 overs). (PTI)
