4th T20I Report: Clinical India defy toss, England's dominance to set up grand finale

Defying the norm of chasing sides clinching victory in the ongoing series, India defended a par total against England to win the fourth T20I and level the exciting series at 2-2. India's victory at the back of strong performances by Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya sets up an exciting final to be played on March 20, at the Narendra Modi stadium. 

Chasing the target of 186 runs could not have been an impossible one for the tourists having seen batting getting easier in the second half of the game. But, the Indian bowling line up had learned their lessons and executed their tactics well enough to hold them back and win the contest by 8 runs.

England openers Jason Roy and Jos Buttler decided to give them a longer rope before starting to go for glory shots. After Roy eating away the first over from Bhuvnehswar Kumar, Buttler attempted to tee off against the pacer’s second over. However, he ended up attempting one big shot too many and handed India an early advantage with his wicket and the trend of only one England opener surviving long enough at the crease continued for the fourth time in the series.

Jason Roy made sure he was not overcommitting to aggressive shots and was able to mix big shots with the sensible display of batsmanship along with Dawid Malan. Malan has not a great time in the T20 series until the fourth game as he has struggled to rotate strike, and find big shots against spinners. He was helped by Shardul Thakur when he spilt a chance off the bowling of Hardik Pandya, who paid back the team's trust of backing him as the fifth bowler.

The Bhuvneshwar-Pandya duo managed to keep the Royand Malan quite for a longish period of time before the pressure was let off by Washington Sundar who went on to face severe punishment on one of the rare nights he has had with the ball. He walked into bowl in the sixth over of England’s chase where Roy took him off for 17 runs. This turned out to be an inflexion point for the tourists in terms of shifting of the momentum.

Having seen Roy shifting gears, Malan attempted an expansive shot as well against Shardul Thakur in the very next over to just clear the long-off. Just when the partnership was changing the complexion of the game, Kohli introduced the debutant—Rahul Chahar, who was preferred over Yuzvendra Chahal.

Right from the start, the leg spinner was all over Malan, who was not able to pick his googly. After surviving a stumping appeal and realising he can’t get on top of Chahar, he attempted the go-to shot England batsmen have been trying and failing with—reverse sweep. However, the leg-spinner pushed it full and tasted first success in his international career dismantling the stumps of the best T20 batsman in the world.

After Chahar sent Malan back to the pavilion, Pandya returned for his third over and bounced out Roy and the delight on the face of Indians told a story about their desperation to send both Malan and Roy back to England dugout.

Eoin Morgan sent Ben Stokes back to his position of number five and the all-rounder was looking hungry to stamp his authority on the series.

Both Stokes and Jonny Bairstow started batting with a calculative approach of targeting specific bowlers as per their match-ups. 

Overs from 10th to 14th yielded 47 runs as Chahar was attacked by Stokes, while Washington Sundar was put to the sword by Bairstow in a proper showdown of ball turning into individual batsmen. The plan was going perfectly into the 15th over as well with Stokes continuing his onslaught against the leg spinner in the first half. 

But, Bairstow decided to ditch the match-up game and attempted an ambitious shot off Chahar. The leg spinner was alert to the batsman coming down the track and checked his length to catch Bairstow completely off-guard. England were left disappointed with a set man giving it away against the run of play.

Bairstow’s departure was a sigh of relief for Indians but the work was not done. An equally, if not more devastating pair of Stokes and Morgan was on the crease and could have snatched the game away from them.

Virat Kohli went off the filed for an injury concern related to his quad muscle and handed over the baton to Rohit Sharma. Sharma stitched an instant tactic with Shardul Thakur of asking both Stokes and Morgan to hit over the longer part of the ground against off-paced balls. The move paid dividends as Stokes and Morgan failed to pick the slower balls and could not muscle full-length deliveries over the boundary line. This shifted the equilibrium significantly in India’s favour.

England’s hopes were shattered but they could still rely on the shoulders of Sam Curran and Chris Jordan. But, it was not to be their day as Pandya made sure that India levelled the series dismissing Curran in the next over. Pandya bowled his quota of four overs for only 16 runs and picked up big wickets of Roy and Curran to announce his return from a long hiatus from bowling due to his back injury.

Needing 33 runs from the last two overs with Jofra Archer and Chris Jordan in the middle was going to be difficult for England. But Jofra Archer kept them in the hunt as late as the penultimate ball of their chasing effort. He was clean in his striking against Shardul sent panic into the mind of the pacer who was emerging as the star with wickets of Morgan and Stokes on consecutive deliveries.

India would be pleased to go into the decider of this series with a clinical performance as both batting and bowling departments stuck to the plans and the captaincy from both Kohli and Rohit were proactive.

After losing the toss and facing another shattering start with the bat, middle-order comprising of the latest sensation Suryakumar Yadav, and Shreyas Iyer guided them to a defendable total before bowlers defied the dew factor to help the side clinch an all-important do-or-die contest.

Suryakumar Yadav showed from the word go why a delay in giving him a chance in the shortest format has not been taken well by the fans and experts. He announced his arrival in the grandest fashion as he pulled Jofra Archer over the fine leg with such swagger and unseen flair. He never looked out of depth against the pace of Mark Wood and Jofra Archer while the leg-spin of Adil Rashid was toyed around for fun.

For India though, howsoever great was the show of strength from Suryakumar Yadav, sluggishness was all the same on either side. KL Rahul got the longer rope for the reputation of being India’s best batsman in the shortest format, but his misery did not end in the fourth game as well. 

However, he did not depart as quickly as in the first three games of the series and provided glimpses of being back at his best with backfoot punches through the off side. After getting stuck against the leg-spin of Adil Rashid, he tried to break free, but the timing for which he has been known in the cricketing arena was not there and he walked off the field shaking his head in disbelief for one more time in this series.

Rohit Sharma looked on a mission to set the record on starting slowly in T20 straight as he hit the very first ball of the game over the top for six. He has shown signs of struggle against leg-spin and Morgan tried to up the ante on him. However, the right-hander looked on top of his game to start the proceedings. But, he could not last long and India were jolted early yet again and needed someone to bail them out of trouble.

Suryakumar Yadav has grown into a master of doing that in the IPL for the Mumbai Indians and he took all of that flair and swagger into the international game when Archer tried to intimidate him on the very first ball. An aware Yadav pulled out his signature pull shot in a calypso style to announce his arrival on the big stage.

Virat Kohli demoted himself to the number four position to give Yadav a preferred option of batting at three. However, the move did not work for him as the hard-earned fluency from the last game was tossed up in the air against Adil Rashid, who clearly has had an edge over the Indian skipper. He has not been able to pick the leg spinner and it was telling on Thursday night when he danced down the track to only miss a googly and India found themselves in the middle of mud once again.

Pant, who could well have been rested from the game played at the number five position tried to take on the bowlers and give India the momentum by playing some ferocious shots. However, a big score remained elusive for the wicketkeeper and this might turn out to be an issue for the southpaw if his performances are measured on the number of runs and not on the intent of play.

After batting at his preferred number four position and scoring a face-saving knock in the first innings, Iyer has not got the opportunity to bat at the top for India as Kohli has been keen on accommodating one of Kishan and Yadav in the top three. Having batted at the number six position in the last two games, and with no signs of coming back to four, Iyer had to bring a different approach to his game and he started putting the England bowlers to the sword.

For some reason, England walked away from the tactics of attacking Iyer with the short ball barrage, and the right-hander was not complaining one bit against fuller balls. He started hitting the balls in gaps and by the time England bowlers returned to bowling short, he had his eyes in to set up a decent, on-par total for India to be able to defend.

In the end, India could defend the 186 runs target and defied the precedent of win the toss and win the game getting prevalence in the series. The fourth game was everything that the sides would have asked for as it tested all aspects of their game after playing three heavily one-sided games, and India’s defence in the game has set up a mouthwatering grand finale in the series between the number one and number two sides on the ICC Rankings.