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Chahal, Raina, Kohli, Morgan, Root: Hits and flops from third T20I between India and England

Virat Kohli Yuzvedra ChahalFinally the long, exhaustive and fruitless tour of England has come to an end with an enthralling T20 adventure! Right from the test series and then the ODI’s and T20’s- a significant quench for ‘settling-scores’ was experienced and India were quite successful in it!

The cricketing world has been awestruck to witness such exuberating performances throughout the fantastic T20 series. Kanpur, Nagpur and Bengaluru witnessed crowd in humungous numbers- such is the craze for the world’s most popular sport.

Also Read: Yuzvendra Chahal in no hyperbolic sense is a product of Indian Premier League

Let’s now talk about the Hits and Flops of the 3rd and the last T20 between the hosts and visitors.

ENGLAND

HITS:

1. Eoin Morgan.

The England Skipper was ruthlessly devastating with his bat hit this time too. After hitting 3 sixes from a Suresh Raina-over, the herculean chase seemed all very possible. His innings was built on sensible singles/doubles with Joe Root and this partnership was flourishing. Morgan smashed loose balls with calculated risks and piled up 5 sixes and 2 fours. The amalgamation of technique and power was taking the match of from India's kitty. Just then the slow-death was quite visible.

Spin-duos Amit Mishra & Yuzvendra Chahal spun a web around the opposition and that hiked up the run-rate. The increasing pressure was choking onto the skipper and that prompted Morgan to play a slog sweep off a Yuzi-googly outside off. The result was he spliced the googly to a running-Rishabh Pant. The debutant was aware of the opportunity and pouched the priceless wicket comfortably.

2. Joe root

The 26-year old Yorkshire-hailing Cricketer Joe Root has been impressive with the bat from his debut in cricketing world. The Fab-Four candidate made a clean 42 from 37 deliveries which included 4 boundaries and 2 magnificent sixes. The ‘most impressive spinner of the series’-Yuzvendra Chahal caught Root plumb in front of his wickets, immediately after the next ball after Morgan’s wicket.

Root and Morgan lost their wickets at the most critical points of the match. But, his consistency and approach has dynamically developed over the years. Root is known for his technique, timing and placement. But he has successfully imbibed the fearless attitude in him, keeping the demand of power in T20 format.

bThe English wicket-keeper and the so-called ‘T20 specialist’ yet again failed to yield confidence and appreciation in this series. His time in India has been nothing less than a miserable nightmare. He scored just 0, 15, 0 in this 3-match series averaging a terrible five!

Jos butler was expected to take the match to a closer finish and provide the runs by exploiting his hard-hitting abilities. The stage was perfectly set. But a horrendous mistimed pull off a rising length ball from Bumrah was just surreal (keeping in mind what Butler could and should’ve done!)
Butler has been known for sheer power, but such performances have marred his image and management’s confidence in him. In future, if we don’t see Butler in the England squad, it surely won’t be a surprise as he has pulled off his own demise.

2. Moeen Ali

The Southpaw didn't even bother to disturb the scoreboard. His contribution of 2 from 3 balls was just negligible in the Himalayan task of chasing 202. He hasn’t had a good time with his bat in recent times, but he was well rewarded for his tight off-spiners. His length variations provided him the perseverance to bag the man of the match awards in the 2nd T20 game.

But coming as an all rounder (along with Ben Stokes), Moeen Ali was expected to provide stability to the team with the bat too. Speaking about his display in this match, Ali failed to connect the ball a short-of-a-length leggie from Chahal and toe-ended the ball which skied up at towering height.

Moeen’s tour was not as resentful and regretting given the fact his spinning contribution helped his side; but he has to come out of the batting stagnancy and shatter the dearth of runs in his credit by providing decent batting performances in future.

INDIA

HITS

1. Suresh Raina

The 30-year old ‘T20 King’, the warrior-the devastator himself - Suresh Raina is known for his prowess in the shortest format of the game. Raina struggled initially as Englishman bombarded bouncers and short balls at him- an area where Suresh Raina is considered vulnerable. Raina was lucky at an instance where he ballooned the ball to cover, but no one took the catch as confusion between Jordan and Ali gave him the lifeline.

He was lucky yet again when he hooked a Jordan-bouncer in the dark sky-high up in the air. But Chinnaswamy’s short boundaries helped him as the just cleared the fence-inches away from a helpless Ben Stokes. After the lifelines, Raina stormed in as a tempest and annihilated the opposition. He took all the shots from his book and cricketing world yet again witnessed a gem of an innings from the veteran.

Suresh Raina scored a staggering 63 off just 45 deliveries which included 2 boundaries and 5 sixes. He was on song but Liam Plunkett came back with his off-cutters and Raina spliced the ball to deep cover, where Morgan pocketed the ball safely.

Also Read: ICC T20I rankings: Yuzvendra Chahal vaults 92 places, Joe Root breaks into top five

2. Yuzvendra Chahal

The 26-year old young leggie finished figures for 4-0-25-6 in the 3rd ODI- which is the best figures for an Indian spinner in the T20I’s. What’s more? He went on to win the Man-of-the-Match and Man-of-the-Series award! Undoubtedly, this pleasant surprise has surely attracted the media’s attention to the skinny guy.
Chahal once again proved his ability to take wickets in the T20’s on one-of-the-smallest-grounds in India. He could bowl with same impact with a new or an old ball. Chahal doesn’t have much flight and variations in his bowling as compared to his fellow-senior Amit Mishra. Yuzi bowls wicket-to-wicket deliveries and deceives the batsmen with drift and skidders.

He was bowling according to the game-plan and the strategic fielding tactics. He continued to bowl googlies and top-spinners to the left-handers and earned scalps of Morgan, Ali and Ben. The right-handers were also caught off-guard as Billings, Jordan and Root all got out to his excellent spells.

Flops:

1. Virat Kohli

VK played only 4 balls before perishing in a run-out. He looked uncomfortable and shabby in his tiny span of time, as he wasn’t middling the ball and missing the timing. Chris Jordan, who had earlier took his wicket, was ready with his rising length balls. He aimed a similar delivery at Kohli’s rib height and Kohli defended with hopping feet. Kohli looked for an impossible single and strided quickly but got sent off by KL Rahul from the other end. Jordan quickly picked up the bowl, showing presence-of-mind and flunged it onto the timbers. Virat was well outside his crease and could only see his flashing timbers.

Speaking about his captaincy, he had a terrible change in his bowling tactic, when he gave the bowl to Raina. Morgan, exploiting this situation, disposed 3 sixes off the over into the stands and it turned to be a 20-run over. Had not Chahal came and provided the breakthrough, India would’ve landed into some serious trouble.