Twenty20 international updates from the decider in Bangalore
Barney Ronay: Joe Root ready for climactic shootout with India
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2.10pm GMT
Sometimes, in life, a man just gotta bowl at the stumps. Stokes does, Rahul heaves across the line and misses, and England have a desperately needed breakthrough.
2.07pm GMT
7th over: India 64-1 (Rahul 22, Raina 32) England need to rein this one back in, but they’re not managing it yet. There’s a change of pace with middle-overs master Moeen’s introduction. Raina nudges on the offside to bring up the 50 partnership, as Moeen’s first two balls are tight back of a length fare. The third, however, is not: it’s fuller and is absolutely clobbered by Rahul straight over the bowler’s head and into the top tier for SIX. Two more follow, then an uppish square drive for one, and a nudge on the legside for one more single.
2.02pm GMT
6th over: India 53-1 (Rahul 13, Raina 30) Jordan returns to the attack and concedes a leg-bye when Rahul misreads his slower ball but scurries through for one anyway. Raina masters Jordan next ball though, judging and timing a high hook that soars into the crowd behind square leg for SIX. He does it again from a slightly fuller delivery which he meets on the front foot and flicks into the same part of the stand. SIX more.
“Hang on a minute,” roars Guy Hornsby. “Re: Niggen Nuggehali’s email (over 3), I’m not sure England fans have a lack of enthusiasm for ‘pyjama’ cricket. Our ire is based on its financial supremacy and often veneer-like bombast, as if it’s now the primacy of formats, binning the majesty and history of the long form of the game. We follow England wherever they go, ready for the usual extremes of glorious victory or bleak defeat, whatever the series. The love for the team is undimmed, but our suspicion and issue with T20 centres on the money, corruption and upstart nature, and its skewing of this beautiful game, not our knackered on-field heroes. Viva Morgan, viva Rooty, viva Tymal!” I don’t really see why they should be counterposed all the time myself. T20 has had positive effects on other forms of the game too – the 50-over game seems refreshed – as well as the negative ones listed. Viva sleepy Thursday afternoons at Colchester AND T20 dazzlers in Delhi.
1.56pm GMT
5th over: India 39-1 (Rahul 13, Raina 17 Stokes replaces Mills and his first ball is mistimed high and wide on the offside by Raina, but it lands safely and brings two runs. His second ball is similar, but mistimed on the legside. There’s a sense someone could have dashed in and caught this if it had been picked up quicker by either Jordan or Moeen – Stokes’s teapot-pose and facial expression suggest so. A single and a wide down legside follow before Stokes deceives Raina brilliantly with a short slower ball that completely outfoxed the left-hander’s attempt to pull. But Raina’s comeback is brilliant, a deliciously timed square cut for four. Another wide completes the scoring in another encouraging over for India.
1.51pm GMT
4th over: India 29-1 (Rahul 12, Raina 10) India cut loose. Plunkett comes into the attack and his first ball – pitched up – is flicked beautifully to the square leg boundary for four by Rahul. The next one is similarly pitched and similarly punished, driven gloriously through the air to long-off for four more. A shorter, smarter ball brings a hurried pull for one from Raina. A couple more singles complete a productive over for India.
1.47pm GMT
3rd over: India 17-1 (Rahul 2, Raina 9) Raina tries to chip Mills over mid-off but can’t get hold of a pacy accurate delivery and it bounces once before reaching the fielder. The bowler’s second legside wide of the match follows. Mills is mostly on top of the batsmen though and he beats Raina for pace when the batsman steps back and tries to carve a legside ball through the offside. A scurried single is followed by a short bouncer that Rahul hooks and misses at. Another good over is undone at its end by a magnificently driven and timed offside SIX from Raina, meeting a full delivery and sending it over the ropes.
“It’s ironic that England has such a strong limited overs side, given the relative lack of enthusiasm among England supporters for pyjama cricket,” writes Niggen Nuggehali. “Perhaps this will change once England begin winning more games. Or do you think the tail can’t wag the dog?” Of course, to continue riffing on our 25-30 years ago theme, the last time England had a consistently better limited-overs side than their Test one was the late 80s/early 90s, but it didn’t, and hasn’t, stopped that era being seen as one of decline and doldrums.
1.41pm GMT
2nd over: India 8-1 (Rahul 1, Raina 2) The booming PA system – which makes Wembley’s sound like whispering Bob Harris – cranks up the exhortations of support for the home team as Jordan opens up from the other end. And gets a breakthrough straight away, hitting the stumps to run out Kohli after a half-hearted lbw appeal prompted the India captain to attempt a daft run for a leg-bye. It’s been a slightly underwhelming series for Kohli. Raina comes in next and is off the mark with a cover drive for one. Jordan keeps it tight – what an asset he is in this form of the game – and India can’t puncture the in-field until Raina dabs a shorter wider ball outside off-stump down to deep point but it only brings a single. A fine over.
1.37pm GMT
Reckless stuff from the India captain – he scuttles out of his crease looking for a single after being rapped on the pad but Jordan’s on it swiftly and throws the stumps down. Fine start for England.
1.35pm GMT
1st over: India 4-0 (Kohli 2, Rahul 1) Tymal Mills, who’s been a thoroughly welcome addition to England’s squad in this series, opens up. India open with Kohli and Rahul, both of whom earn IPL big bucks in this stadium. The pitch looks cracked yet kind of smooth, like so many of us, and Mills, round the wicket, finds some bounce out of it to keep Kohli on the back foot. A legside wide gets India off the mark but other than that it’s tight and accurate stuff, just slightly back of a length and difficult to get hold of, and there are only four runs from it.
1.26pm GMT
Out come the umpires, Anil Chaudhary and Nitin Menon. Incidentally, the withdrawn Shamshuddin is now listed as the TV umpire. And they’re going through the national anthems, something I’ll never get used to in cricket. Just get on with the game.
1.14pm GMT
First email: step forward Julien Allen. “Please don’t say ‘ask your grandad’ about Shakoor Rana. I’m 45 and remember it like it was yesterday!” A mere exaggerated sarcastic – not to say melancholy – riff about the passing of time Julien. All reflections on the joys and mediocrities of 80s cricket are welcome here.
1.06pm GMT
For England, we have pace for spin, with Liam Plunkett returning in place of Liam Dawson. And India give a debut to much-heralded teenage wicketkeeper-batsman Risabh Pant, whose strike rate in four-day cricket this season was 107.28. He comes in at the top of the order for Manish Pandey, and is the youngest player to feature in a T20 international for India. Dhoni has the gloves today though, of course.
India: Pant, Rahul, Kohli, Raina, Yuvraj, Dhoni, Pandya, Mishra, Bumrah, Nehra, Chahal
1.02pm GMT
Eoin Morgan calls it right and India bat first for the third time in the series. “Wicket looks reasonable,” says the England captain. “We need a complete performance this time,” he adds.
12.45pm GMT
Nonetheless, as we were riffing – briefly – on the mid-to-late-80s back in the preamble, here’s a fine read from Andy Bull in this week’s The Spin on the Somerset saga of 1986, harking back to a barely imaginable age in which county cricket club politics made the news pages, as well as the sport ones. And if that doesn’t get you in the mood for this hyper-modern T20 decider, nothing will:
Related: Peter Roebuck’s Somerset dilemma a window into how much has changed | The Spin
12.37pm GMT
News! Scratch all that – umpire Shamshuddin has stood down due to illness. Which takes some of the sting out of proceedings, or perhaps not. Get well soon anyway.
6.28pm GMT
Afternoon/evening everyone. Well, after the all-you-can-hit run buffets that were the three ODIs, this Twenty20 series has been agreeably shaped by the bowlers, giving us a chance to admire the death-overs arts of the likes of Jasprit Bumrah and Chris Jordan. The second match in particular demonstrated that low-scoring is no impediment to excitment and tension in T20, particularly if it comes laced with umpiring TALKING POINTS, notably the reprieves of Virat Kohli and the dismissal of Joe Root. Mercifully, Root has been playing it all down, in best diplomatic ‘ah-well-we-all-make-mistakes’ mode. The Shakoor Rana affair this ain’t (ask your grandad).
The umpire at the centre of it all, Chettithody Shamshuddin, stands again today, in a match that is unlikely to follow the patterns of the previous two. The pitch at the M Chinnaswamy stadium is a proper shirtfront, by all accounts, a slogger’s paradise, which threatens a busy old evening in the field for England’s players whose long two-pronged Asian tour finally ends today. How different the world was was back when it all started, at the beginning of October, with that dramatic 50-over win against Bangladesh. England have learned a lot about themselves, in all forms of the game, since then, not all of it heartening. But they’ve competed very well in this T20 series and Bengaluru should see a suitably rousing end to the tour.
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