India vs England 2nd T20I: Jasprit Bumrah-Ashish Nehra heroics, black armbands, KL Rahul and other highlights from Nagpur contest

It was England's game to lose but the remarkable turnaround was triggered by Bumrah and Ashish Nehra's brilliant death bowling.

Jasprit Bumrah is the ranked-two T20I bowler for a reason. He is just a year old in international cricket but possesses an unmatched maturity. On Sunday, that helped India win the second T20I against England at Nagpur and level the series 1-1. England needed 41 from the final 5 overs and had 7 wickets in hand with Joe Root and Ben Stokes at the crease. It was England’s game to lose but the remarkable turnaround was triggered by Bumrah and Ashish Nehra’s brilliant death bowling. Bumrah went on to defend 8 from the final over, giving away just 2 runs and claiming the key wickets of Root and Jos Buttler. The teams now head to Bengaluru for the decider, let us have glance through the match highlights:

Black armbands: Indian cricketers sported a black armband to condole the demise of Rajesh Sawant and Tosif Ali. Ahead of the second T20I, two tragedies struck the side. Paceman Mohammed Shami, who is currently nursing an injury, lost his father to a heart attack on Friday. Also, earlier on Sunday, India Under-19 trainer Rajesh Sawant passed away due to a cardiac arrest. He was with the U-19 national side in Mumbai, helping them prepare for the series against England U-19, which starts on Monday.

#TeamIndia is wearing a black armband to condole the sad demise of India U19 trainer Rajesh Sawant and M Shami’s father pic.twitter.com/1XRnXIiTUk

— BCCI (@BCCI) January 29, 2017

 

BCCI condoles the sad demise of India Under 19 trainer Rajesh Sawant. He passed away today morning in Mumbai. pic.twitter.com/jvRI0e9Bxm

— BCCI (@BCCI) January 29, 2017

 

Kohli vs Mills, round II: Before the series started, Virat Kohli dismissed the Tymal Mills threat`, but the former was clearly beaten by the pace in the second over of the game when a top edge flew towards the third-man region for a boundary. Kohli was not going to let the pacer dominate. In Mills’ next over, Kohli executed a stunning shot, reminiscent of the Nagpur six that he struck off Chris Woakes. He stayed back in the crease and punched it through the line, over long-off. He followed that with another boundary. Kohli fell the next over to Chris Jordan for a 15-ball 21.

It is KL Rahul, finally: Better late than never. Many pundits had left out Rahul from their likely XI ahead of this game. You cannot call them harsh as Rahul’s scores before this game read: 8, 5, 11 and 8. In the do-or-die clash when all other Indian batsmen struggled, Rahul stood tall amidst the ruins and crafted a fine 47-ball 71 that guided India to a competitive 144. Laced with 6 fours and 2 sixes, Rahul found the right balance between aggression and rotating the strike.

Even Dhoni could not help but applaud.

Half century for @klrahul11 and it receives the applause of @msdhoni #TeamIndia #INDvENG pic.twitter.com/tyxeOovTBI

— BCCI (@BCCI) January 29, 2017

Manish Pandey’s brush with luck: Ben Stokes was bowling the 15th over. Pandey attempted to guide the ball towards the gully region and missed it. There was a sound as the ball thudded into Jos Buttler’s gloves. A nick? No.

The ball had clipped the stump on its journey. Even the zing flash bails had lit up but to Stokes’ agony, they did not fall off.

In the first ball of the next over, Pandey almost got involved in a mid-pitch collision with Rahul.

He, however, survived almost till the end of the penultimate over of the innings before Mills cleaned him up for a 26-ball 30.

MS Dhoni and comedy of run outs: Dhoni is a confident man. He backs himself to execute supernatural stuff. But of late, those finishing skills have waned. Never mind, he still remains confident.

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In bid to keep strike in the final over, there were two run outs — Hardik Pandya and Amit Mishra. Dhoni managed to keep bulk of the strike. He scored 2 from the 3 balls he faced before getting cleaned-up. India could manage 144 and Jordan returned with figures of 4-0-22-3.

Kohli’s love for leg-spin: Kohli’s fondness of playing leg-spinners is well known. In fact, in his first Test as captain, he had dropped Ravichandran Ashwin in favour of rookie Karn Sharma. When he saw England struggle against Yuzvendra Chahal, he decided to pick Amit Mishra for this game. Two leg-spinners in one match is a rarity, especially in T20 cricket.

He opened the bowling with Chahal, who gave away only 2 from his first over but Sam Billings and Jason Roy targeted his next over. There were 2 sixes by either of them, eventually leaking 15 runs.

Nehra ji smiles: Nehra’s comeback is a sporting folklore. Even at 37, he does not fail to sizzle. His first over cost 5. Billings charged down the ground in the first ball of his next over. Nehra banged it short and cramped the batsman for room. He got a top edge straight to Bumrah at fine-leg.

The next ball, Nehra altered the pace and it stopped on Roy, who looked to guide it in the leg-side. The ball lobbed to Suresh Raina at mid-off.

Two in two. On this day, 11 years back, another left-armer from India, Irfan Pathan, had bagged a Test hat-trick. Nehra ji came close, but Eoin Morgan chose to leave the hat-trick ball that was bowled outside the off-stump.

Later in the match when England needed 32 from 4 overs with Stokes and Root at the crease, he bowled a match-defining over that saw 5 singles and the wicket of the danger man Stokes (38 off 27). His figures were 3-0-12-3. The penultimate over went for 14 though.

Amit Mishra’ 200 and 201, almost: No, I am not referring to the double-ton he scored in Ranji Trophy.

England were going steady till the 10th over when Morgan decided to slog-sweep Mishra out of the attack. He did not connect it and Pandya running from long-on took a sitter. That was Mishra’s 200th T20 wicket. Already the most successful Indian bowler in IPL, he became the second Indian in the 200-T20-wicket club after Ashwin.

Two balls later, he got his 201st. Well almost. He beat Stokes with the drift and castled him. To his dismay, it was a ‘no ball’. An expensive one as Stokes would go on to score 38 from the next 26 balls that he faced.

When umpire played as 12th man: Once upon a time in cricket, local umpires had a notorious reputation to play as the 12th men for home sides. The Abdul Hafeez Kardar and Lala Amarnath story, anyone? You can read it here.

The umpiring gaffes transported us to those days. Kohli was caught plumb in the third over, but umpire Shamsuddin felt otherwise. In the ninth over, Yuvraj looking to sweep Moeen Ali was trapped right in the front of stumps and once again the local umpire ruled it in India’s favour.

In the final over when England needed 8 from 6 balls, Root looked to play a pull, got an inside edge to his thigh and much to the surprise of Englishmen, he was ruled out. Losing a set batsman at the end stages hurt them bad.

“Very frustrating it absolutely shifted the momentum in the 20th over. Losing a batsman [Root] off the first ball, who has faced 40 balls on a wicket that’s not easy to time the ball on is quite a bit of a hammer blow. It proved very costly all things considered a couple of decisions did not go our way. We still should have won the game,” said Morgan and it sums up the English plights.

Bumrah’s last over: He had gone for 16 from his 2 overs. He came back and bowled the 18th over, giving 3 from it. Now, 8 from the final over. England had Root and Buttler out in the middle and odds were heavily against India.

A stroke of luck had Bumrah remove Root in the first ball. Now, 8 from 5; Moeen got a single. 7 from 4. With Buttler around, you usually associate England were two blows away. A change of pace saw Buttler swing and miss.

The next ball was a length one; it skidded to Buttler, giving him no room as it hurried on to his pads before meeting the stumps.

7 from 2. Jordan missed and a bye.

Moeen Ali’s honeymoon continues: He wins England games and then wraps that invisible cloak, not to remove it till one more defining performance. He followed up his Man-of-the-Match feat of 4-0-21-2 with 4-0-20-1 in the second game.

Now he had the job of doing a Javed Miandad here. The only connection here is his Pakistani descent. But Bumrah is smart. He is the No. 2-ranked T20I bowler in ICC Rankings. The thin-framed Gujarati bowls it wide and full. Moeen swings and misses. That is it.

India win by 5 runs. The series levelled 1-1. And this is the lowest last over score that India have defended.

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