IND vs ENG | 3rd T20: Jos Buttler's firepower overshadows Virat Kohli's masterclass
Riding on a splendid knock of 83 from Jos Buttler, England beat India comprehensively by eight wickets chasing down 157 runs with 11 balls to spare. England have taken a 2-1 lead in the five-match T20I series after India could post only 156 runs board on the back of Virat Kohli’s innings of 77 runs. England were dominating the game right from the start and in the end, the win was always on the cards as Jos Buttler rediscovered his mojo with the bat to never allow India any opening to come back in the game. Man of the Match made sure England were never behind the curve in pursuit of 157 runs although his partner Jason Roy, who has been outsourcing him and other England batsmen in the previous two games, struggled to time the ball initially. Bhuvneshwar Kumar has started to get the swing going for him since the last game and was cramping Roy for room before the man from Surrey adopted his methods of using brute force while reaching near to the pitch of the ball to take the attack to the opposition. Kohli was proactive in bringing Yuzvendra Chahal into the attack as early as in the fourth over to challenge Morgan on the game of match ups. However, before Chahal could get to Roy, whom he had all over the place in the last game, Buttler launched an attack against him to show he was coming back to his best. But, in the same over, Kohli’s move to bring leg spinner ratified as Roy attempted yet another reverse sweep— a shot he had conceded in the pre-match conference that was attempted going out of his own order of batting. India got an opening from the one end as Malan, for the best of his consistency, has been a grafter who takes time and pace his innings while others put opposition bowlers’ to the sword. While Kohli and company would have hoped from some respite after the departure of Roy, Buttler extended the display of his full-range of shots hitting two sixes and as many fours off the next six balls he faced off Shardul Thakur and Chahal. It was to be Buttler’s night and it was evident from the first shot he attempted of Chahal in his first over, and although the leg spinner could produce an absolute jaffa to beat him all ends up, the flamboyant batsman survived with a wry smile to take the game out of India’s grasp. Soon enough, Malan was off the hook and he started hitting boundaries to keep the scoreboard going from his side while Buttler was putting on a show and completed a 26-ball-50. Buttler’s amazing ease of hitting big shots probably lured Malan into attempting a big shot off Washington Sundar and Pant found an opportunity to whip the bails off while the opposition batsman was outside the batting crease just like he was stranded in the first innings. With Malan’s departure at the halfway stage, India though they had a decent chance to pick up wickets and bring the game towards equilibrium. However, Jonny Bairstow, who suffered enough humiliation against turning balls in white jerseys, has been a man on the mission of running away from his nightmare against the turning balls. He was severe against pacers and never really allowed India any sort of breathing space, and along with a perpetual dominant force at the order end in the form of Buttler, knocked the life out of the game and India to seal the deal comprehensively for the tourists. Earlier in the evening, the god of the toss kept on flickering in this game as well with Morgan winning the toss for the second time in the series after losing in the last game. There was no hesitation in asking India to bat first based on the evidence of life becoming easier for batsmen in the second innings. Kohli dropped a bombshell even before the start of the game when he announced that Rohit Sharma was returning for Suryakumar Yadav who did not do anything on his debut in the last game to be shown the exit door. However, Kohli’s options were limited from the outset with only KL Rahul as the probable to be axed for the retention of Suryakumar Yadav. Also, he vouchsafed that Kishan, who had started his international career with a bang were to bat at the number three following Rahul and Rohit at the top. However, Kishan was not kept far away from the field of action for a long time as KL Rahul’s miserable run at the top continued in the third game as well. Rahul walked off the pitch shaking his head just like in the last game after Mark Wood pierced through his defence in the second over itself. Rahul has three ducks in his last four innings for India and the effect of not playing games while being in under bubbles with the team is showing up on his lack of confidence and tentativeness in footwork. On the other hand, Morgan did not make life any easier for Indians as he carried on with his tactics based purely on match-ups. Statistically, Rohit Sharma has shown signs of weakness against leg spinner and express pace, and Morgan was at it with the trio of Adil Rashid, who came back to open the bowling, Mark Wood and Jofra Archer. Rohit looked hurried against the duo of Wood and Archer and offered an easy opportunity to Archer to send back to the pavilion. However, the generosity was not taken, and Wood made sure he will be the one to send the Indian vice-captain back. Rohit was getting beaten outside off stump against the back of length deliveries bowled at a rapid pace and decided to make room for himself. Wood was smarter and too quick for his liking as a cramped pull shot was snaffled up by Archer at short fine leg. Having tasted success and becoming the darling of Indian cricket due to the freshness he brought to the Indian top order, there was no point in holding back from Kishan and he was not too keen on that aspect anyway. He has been a brilliant puller of the short balls and attempted one against Jordan after the initial bursts from Archer and Wood, but only to be found out as the ball got big on him. The onus was on Kohli who was already in the eye of a storm following the unpopular call of dropping Suryakumar Yadav and Rishabh Pant to resurrect India. Both the men have had a fair shed of experience doing that in their career, with the left-hander catching up Kohli on that front in the recent months. Kohli was batting too well to be dismissed, but at the same time struggled to time the ball fluently. Pant tried to break free and hit some lust boundaries and the duo started putting pressure back on England bowlers. The jubilation for India however was to be short-lived as greed to steal an extra run and Kohli miscalculating Pant’s running speed resulted in the departure of the left-hander. There has been so much experimentation from the Indian side that Iyer, who has been batting at the number four position, been demoted to the number five and number six position tonight. His vulnerabilities against short balls have now become commonly known and England had enough of fire in their pace department to test his throat. With nothing to lose and India already reeling behind in the run rate, Iyer decided to take the short ball on over the off side, but the size of the boundary was too big for his timing and power and India were left to scramble once again with Kohli continuing to fight from the other end. Kohli saw his teammates getting trapped in the crease by extra pace, caught knuckled down by short balls, and the struggle was not any different for him as well. His first 29 balls yielded only 28 runs, although he was not looking only to get himself in, but batted with the intent he has publicly spoken of in recent times. With India languishing at 87/5 in 15 overs, Kohli had to do something about runs coring with Pandya struggling at the other end too. It was not going to be easy as England’s tormentors in the form of Archer and Wood were still going great on the speed guns. However, the different version of Kohli suddenly rose from the sluggishness and runs started to flow off his bat. He picked Archer’s eg cutter to hit him over mid-off while a full-paced delivery went over the fine leg in the rare occasion of India getting the run of the green. A 29-ball-28 improved to 33-ball-39 by the end of Archer’s over and Kohli was back to his best of picking length early and picking his spots which have been a feature of his best with the bat. He carried on with the hard-found momentum against Jordan in the next over and earned another six and a four off him to bring India in a position of some respectability by the end of the 17th over. Wood was the pick of England bowlers and Kohli emerged as India’s dangerman to set up a proper showdown in the last couple of overs in the first innings. Wood’s pace was consistent and he troubled all Indian batsmen, but by the time Wood returned with his fourth over of the night, Kohli was back with his best with the bat. Right from the start of the faceoff, Kohli was on top of his game, and he started picking up Wood’s brain along with his line of attack. He was proactive to judge Wood was planning to attack him as he did against Rohit, and hence he walked outside off his off stump to line him up for a big six over square leg. Wood tried to change his tactics and switched to fuller length, but was met with an even better shot from Kohli as he lifted him over long-off with a shot that might as well establish that he was never out of form as some have been suggesting. The brilliance of Kohli with the bat could well be established with the struggles Pandya was dealing with at the other end. He was labouring to get the balls out of square and ended up scoring merely 17 runs from 15 balls, but Kohi ensured India could have a total they could even dare to defend at the end of their batting efforts. It was a perfect game for Virat Kohli, the batsman on the back of a soul-defining innings to reclaim his supremacy in this Indian batting order. However, for skipper Kohli, there are problems aplenty which have been some sort of unravelling from the start of the series where he was to deal with the problems of plenty. He saw the top order getting blown away by raw pace from Archer and Wood, but tactically would be happier looking at the batsmen adopting the newer promised approach of batting with freedom. As stated earlier so many times, the move to bat with absolute freedom at the top is fraught with risk, and it was one of those nights it all fell apart for India right in front of Kohli at the other end. For Morgan, it was back to business as usual with pacers bringing results picking up wickets at crucial junctures starting from the top and the batting order crowded with fearsome batsmen who could make any sort of chase look like a seamless affair. Although, the series is being used as an option to experiment with different playing combinations in order to find out a perfect mix of players for the World T20, Kohli and the team management will have to be careful about opening up more cracks in the set up then they would have liked to attempt to solve, or can solve in coming months leading up to the big T20 World Cup.
 "Mayank Kumar")
