England – Indian seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar struck three times as a spirited bowling display from the touring side helped them thrash England by 49 runs in the second Twenty20 at Edgbaston on Saturday to take an elusive 2-0 lead in the series. Bhuvneshwar (3-15) rocked England at the start of their chase of 171, removing Jason Roy first ball and then his team-mate and England captain Jose Buttler, before Yuzvendra Chahal (2-10) chipped in with two wickets to leave the home side struggling with 55- 5.
Moeen Ali (35) and David Willey (33) kept England afloat with entertaining cameos but a flurry of wickets meant they were bowled out for 121 in 17 overs. In recent years in England, we have not helped much with the ball, but this year it is more,” said Bhuvneshwar, who was named the man of the match. they have to take their chances.”
Earlier, India’s bold new approach to T20 cricket showed once again after they were put in to bat as Rohit Sharma and Rishabh Pant jammed England’s attack from the start and piled on 61 runs in the powerplay. But that early pace was halted by paceman Richard Gleeson (3-15), who reveled in a dream debut by claiming the prized scalps of Rohit (31), Virat Kohli (1) and Pant (26) in the space of four balls. Suryakumar Yadav (15) and Hardik Pandya (12) also departed early, both falling to Chris Jordan (4-27) as England made a strong recovery before Ravindra Jadeja’s 29-ball 46 helped India finish on an imposing 170-8.
“Great knock (by Jadeja) under pressure. We wanted someone to bat and give us a score, Jadeja scored a hundred here (in the fifth Test) and went on from there,” said India captain Rohit. “At no point did we feel panic set in. It was good to finish with a score that we thought was even on this surface.” The teams play one more game at Trent Bridge on Sunday.
