Rajkot: Collective performances from the bowlers helped England beat India in the third T20I by 26 runs on Tuesday, January 28 and keep the series alive. The series scoreline now stands 2-1 in favour of the Indian side with a couple of more games remaining.
Opener Ben Duckett and Liam Livingstone played crucial knocks in the first innings to help England post a competitive 172-run target after the middle order failed to show resilience to stay on the crease. England bowlers picked up wickets on regular intervals and didn't let the batters take the momentum and eventually restricted them to 145.
#TeamIndia put up a fight but England won the third T20I by 26 runs!
— BCCI (@BCCI) January 28, 2025
India will look to bounce back in the fourth T20I in Pune. 👍 👍
Scorecard ▶️ https://t.co/amaTrbtzzJ#INDvENG | @IDFCFIRSTBank pic.twitter.com/t0l42NwbvX
Opting to bat first, England posted a defendable total thanks to Duckett's fifty and Livingstone's crucial 43-run knock in the middle order that lifted the visitor to 171 runs. Varun Chakravarthy was the pick of the bowler for India as he picked up his second five-wicket haul in T20Is, joining the elite list of list featuring Kuldeep Yadav and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar who have multiple five-fors in the shortest format of the game. Varun Chakravarthy becomes the first bowler in T20 Internationals to take five-fers in two defeats.
Even from 127/8, we never take a backward step 👊
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) January 28, 2025
What a win in Rajkot! 🙌
Match Centre: https://t.co/nhxqiQ1kiY pic.twitter.com/aGjQnimEG2
In reply, India lost an early wicket in the form of Sanju Samson who struggled to get going once again. Abhishek Sharma and Surkyakumar Yadav were dismissed in the powerplay, while Tilak Varma, who helped India secure a victory in the nail-biting second T20I couldn't add anything substantial either. Before Tuesday, Tilak was last dismissed in a T20 international way back in the South Africa series. In between two dismissals, Tilak amassed 336 runs (off 187 balls), a run that included back-to-back unbeaten hundreds in South Africa and the key contribution of 72 not out in India's two-wicket win on Saturday.
England bounce back with a clinical win in Rajkot to make it 2-1 in the five T20I series👊#INDvENG 📝: https://t.co/rLa32JzewH pic.twitter.com/VeRG5hqNY4
— ICC (@ICC) January 28, 2025
Spinner Adil Rashid kept the pressure on the bowlers created by the pacers as the hosts failed to time the ball in the middle overs and as a result of that the required run rate shot over the roof. Washington Sundar used up too many deliveries before departing, while Hardik Pandya and Axar Patel struggled to keep the scoreboard ticking when the pacers were bowling. Boundaries were difficult to come by for India and as a result of some disciplined stump-to-stump bowling, England managed to defend the total comfortably in the end.
