IND vs ENG: Suryakumar Yadav’s dream debut, leads Indian win

Suryakumar Yadav’s 57 off 31 balls was the highlight of the match

On Thursday, the Fourth T20 international match was held at Narendra Modi Stadium between India and England; the home team emerged victorious by a slim margin of 8 runs after a great game of cricket. The result has now leveled the five match T20 series to 2-2, making the next match as the decisive factor in asserting the series winner.

India was invited to bat first to put up a competitive score by England’s Eoin Morgan. The Indian batting lineup saw KL Rahul continue in his role as an opener alongside Rohit Sharma despite his previous lack lustre performances on the pitch. KL Rahul did manage to hit the fence on two occasions scoring 14 runs. Nevertheless, his departure to the hands of Ben Stokes saw Surya kumar Yadav make his fabulous international debut.

Yadav’s maiden half-century shone the brightest in the eventful match only for him to be controversially dismissed by Sam Curran. The soft signal from the on-field umpire, KN Ananthapadmanabhan was out, and TV umpire Virender Sharma could not reverse the decision due to a lack of decisive evidence. After Yadav’s exit, Rishabh Pant’s 30 and Shreyas Iyer’s valiant score of 37 which involved some five boundaries and a singular sixer facilitated in providing England with a challenging 185/8.

The English were slow to start with, Bhuvneshwar Kumar scooped up a maiden over putting pressure on the England openers, eventually managing to oust Buttler early on in the second innings. Jason Roy started out late and worked his way up to a 40 run stint. The only other batsmen that were steady with the bat were Stokes who put up a fifty plus partnership with Jonny Bairstow. Their efforts were however drowned by Hardik Pandya’s inexpensive bowling, the astute Shardul Thakur’s back to back wickets and spinner Chahar, who picked up two crucial wickets.

The English captain Eoin Morgan in the post-match presentation said, "We really want to play in must-win games like this," he added, "They're the closest thing that we get to playing in a World Cup or a Champions Trophy and against a fantastic side like India, it should bode to be a great game.”