IND Vs ENG 5th T20: India seals a decisive victory for series win

The Indian side cliched the T20 International series 3-2 by putting up a dominant score of 224/4 for the English to chase. At the onset of the second innings the score seemed achievable by the English, but consistent bowling by the likes of Bhuveshwar Kumar and Shardul Thakur brought the momentum back to India.

The match saw Indian skipper Virat Kohli opening alongside Rohit Sharma for the first time as KL Rahul was dropped to make room for pacer T Natarajan. Rohit played up to his Hitman reputation, scoring a gallant 64 off 34 balls, giving the English bowlers every cricket shot in the play book from straight hits to pull over deep square leg to perfect cover drives. Suryakumar Yadav who was coming off a magnificent debut carried on his momentum scoring back-to-back sixes and successive fours. Kohli backed every Indian Batsmen including Hardik Pandya who joined him on the pitch after Yadav’s dismissal by being brilliant with his shot-making and pacing his batting. Pandya alongside Kohli slammed the English bowlers for massive boundaries and sixes to attain the score of 224.

The English top order was promising despite losing Jason Roy to a duck, with Jos Buttler’s 52 and David Malan’s 68. But Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s bowling economy of 3.75 runs coupled with Shardul Thakur ousting three wickets, two of which were successive absolutely ruined the English momentum. This allowed the Indian bowling side to tear through the English middle and lower order bowling them out for 188.

Kohli said in the post-match presentation "It was a complete game for us. Totally outplayed the opposition. Even with so much dew coming in, like last game we have defended the total again. Today was a complete game." Speaking on his likelihood of continuing to open for India in the future Kohli commented, “I am going to open in the IPL as well. Have batted in different positions in the past. But I feel we have a solid middle-order now. Will definitely like to partner Rohit at the top."