It was a must-win match for India and who better to lead the charge than their inspirational skipper!
But before that, we must doff our hat to the Indian bowlers, whose accuracy during the death overs laid the perfect foundation for the victory.
Batting first, England suffered an early jolt when the aggressive Jos Buttler was adjudged lbw off Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the third ball of the innings.
Jason Roy (46 off 35) and Dawid Malan (24 off 23) added 63 runs off 47 balls before Yuzvendra Chahal chipped in with a vital breakthrough. Aided by a review, he trapped Malan lbw plumb in front in front of the crease.
Roy looked in fine fettle but fell in the forties for second time in a row, caught at deep square leg by Bhuvneshwar off Washington Sundar in the 12th over.
Sundar got his second wicket in his next over. The victim – Jonny Bairstow caught by debutant Suryakumar Yadav at deep square leg.
At the 15th over mark, England was poised at a healthy 130 for 4.
With several big hitters in the fray, like Curran, Jordan and Stokes, a plus 200 score was highly probable.
But that’s when Indian bowlers pulled out a rabbit out of the hat, with a splendid display of restrictive bowling.
Shardul Thakur (2/29) was particularly impressive, producing precious dot balls in the end.
As a result, England finished at 164 for 6, clearly about 20 runs short.
Ishan sparkles
The Indian innings started in the worst possible note when KL Rahul fell for a duck, off Sam Curran after scratching around for 5 balls.
Rahul is clearly suffering a loss of confidence, after a long spell out of the Indian team.
However, Indian cricket fans were in for an unexpected treat as Ishan Kishan exploded to life.
The second wicket fell after a 94 run partnership between Kohli and Ishan, by which time, the match had been effectively decided.
Ishan betrayed no sign of nerves as he smashed a blistering 56 in just 32 balls, with 5 fours and 4 sixes.
Kohli smartly allowed Ishan to be the dominant partner, as India was well within the asking rate.
Ishan’s departure, after falling lbw to Rashid, brought the irrepressible Pant to the crease who quickly demolished any notions of victory England might have had.
He plundered 26 in just 13 balls, with 2 fours and 2 sixes.
For India, the most reassuring sight was the return to form of their skipper, who struck some glorious straight drives, that were vintage Kohli.
Kohli’s handsome 73 off just 49 balls, took the team home, with 13 balls to spare.
India: 1 Ishan Kishan, 2 KL Rahul, 3 Virat Kohli (capt), 4 Rishabh Pant (wk), 5 Shreyas Iyer, 6 Suryakumar Yadav, 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Shardul Thakur, 9 Washington Sundar, 10 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal
England: 1 Jason Roy, 2 Jos Buttler (wk), 3 Dawid Malan, 4 Jonny Bairstow, 5 Ben Stokes, 6 Eoin Morgan (capt), 7 Sam Curran, 8 Tom Curran, 9 Jofra Archer, 10 Chris Jordan, 11 Adil Rashid
