India lost the third T20I against England in Rajkot on Tuesday and the home team’s skipper Suryakumar Yadav rued the fact that they let England off the hook despite having them on the ropes.
England’s lower order, shepherded by Liam Livingsone (43 off 24 balls), revived the visitors from a precarious 127 for 8 to reach 171 for 9, which proved to be the difference in the end, as India could only score 145 for 9 in their chase to lose by 26 runs.
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The win kept the five-match series alive, with England cutting India’s lead to 2-1.
Despite England notching up a competitive total, skipper Surya feels his team had the game in its hand but for Adil Rashid‘s tight spell that put the lid on India’s scoring rate.
Rashid took just one wicket but gave away only 15 runs in his four overs.
“I felt there would be a little dew later in the day. I feel we had the game in our hands when Hardik Pandya(40 off 35 balls)) and Axar Patel (15 off 16) were batting. Credit goes to Adil Rashid; he bowled really well. That’s why he is a world-class bowler. He didn’t allow us to rotate the strike,” Suryakumar said at the post-match presentation.
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“I feel you always learn something from a T20 game…We’ve got to learn from the batting point of view. Got to go back to the drawing board and learn from our mistakes.”
England commenced strongly as opener Ben Duckett played an attacking role during his 76-run partnership with captain Jos Buttler (24 off 22). However, the visitors’ position deteriorated from 83/2 to 127/8.
Buttler acknowledged the concern about losing quick wickets but praised the lower-order batters for increasing the total towards the end and commended the bowling unit for their crucial performance when needed.
After Livingstone departed in the 18th over, Rashid (10*) and Mark Woold (10*) added 21 runs for the last wicket to take the total past the 170-run mark.
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“I think the wicket looked different, Duckett played well. We lost wickets in clumps; we were disappointed…Credit to Rashid and Wood, they had a crucial partnership. That was the difference in the end,” said Buttler
“The guys bowled really well, it was nice to show off their skills. Not about how fast they can bowl, but how well they can adapt to the wicket,” he added. “He (Rashid) is the most important player in our team; we are fortunate to have Rashid in the team. He has all the variations.”