Indian batters falter against all-round England attack

Indian batters faltered against an incisive England bowling attack as the visitors raised their game in a mustwin scenario to win the third T20I by 26 runs and keep the fivematch series alive on TuesdayMohammed Shami made a solid comeback to international cricket after 14 months but it was Varun Chakravarthys bowling effort that stood out as his fivewicket haul helped India limit England to 1719India should have chased down the target but the batters could only manage 1459 in 20 oversIndia still lead the series 21 with the fourth game scheduled in Pune on January 31While express pace combine of Jofra Archer and Mark Wood did the job in the powerplay Adil Rashid applied the choke in the middle overs with a skillful display of legspinUnsettled by the extra pace of Archer in the first two games Sanju Samson 3 off 6 fell to the England pacer once again while trying to hit a short of length ball out of the parkHis opening partner Abhishek Sharma 24 off 14 played some crisp shots before falling to Brydon CarseSuryakumar Yadav 14 off 7 started with a trademark pick up shot off Archer that went all the way but a similar shot attempted off Wood brought about his downfall extending his lean runThe turning point of Indias innings was the dismissal of Tilak Varma 18 off 14 who had returned not out in his last four outings including two hundreds and a halfcenturyIt took a special ball from Rashid to send back Varma as the legspinner got one to turn sharply from outside the offstump and crash into the middle stumpHardik Pandya 40 off 35 took the game deep but was not able to take his team over the lineEarlier England lost their way after a whirlwind fifty from Ben Duckett 51 off 28 as the inform Chakravarthy ran through the opposition batting on a flat trackFrom 83 for one England slipped to 127 for eight before Liam Livingstone 43 off 24 went on a sixhitting spree to end the innings on a highChakravarthy completed his second fivewicket haul in T20s when he bowled Jofra Archer with a googlyWhile Ravi Bishnoi 446 in 4 overs and Washington Sundar 015 in 1 proved expensive Chakravarthy 524 in four Hardik 332 in 4 and Axar Patel 119 in 3 kept things tight from their endShami 025 in 3 did not set the stage on first but it was important that he had an incident free outingAfter being put in to bat England made a promising start by coasting to 521England have struggled against the Indian spinners in the series but Duckett overcame that challenge with some audacious strokeplay on way to his second T20 fifty He danced down the track employed the scoop and reverse hits to unsettle the opposition attackHe was the aggressor in his 76run stand with skipper Jos Buttler 24 off 22 but the duo fell in quick succession to lose the momentum in the middle overs Among the shots Duckett pulled off included a scoop over the keepers head off Shamis second overWhen Shami marked his run up before toss it was confirmed that he would be playing his first international since the ODI World Cup final in November 2023On a flat track Shami who replaced Arshdeep Singh as the sole specialist pacer in the playing eleven was tasked with bowling the opening over of the matchHe induced a couple of play and misses in his opening spell that read 015 in two overs Shami returned to bowl the 19th over which went for 11 runs capping off an incident free outingHe bowled balls close to 140kmph and got the ball to shape away allaying concerns over his fitnessAt 83 for one England were on course for 200 with Duckett going all guns blazing and deep batting lineup to followHowever the momentum shifted Indias way when Chakravarthy had Buttler caught behind with the latter getting a faint tickle attempting a reverse sweepDuck was holed out at deep midwicket in the following over from Axar leaving England at 87 for three at the halfway markChakravarthy removed Jamie Smith and Jamie Overton off successive balls in the 14th over to make matters worse for England