England 201 for 7 (Salt 70, Curran 41*, Prince 2-32) beat India 76 (Tongue 4-28, Archer 3-29) by 125 runs
The margin of defeat, a fourth in a row for the two-time reigning T20 world champions, was by far India’s heaviest in the format. Having arrived in Ireland 10 days ago with a record of 16 T20I series/tournaments in a row unbeaten, they must now win the next two games against England to avoid making it two consecutive series losses.
The evening had started positively. Shreyas Iyer again won the choice at the toss and this time opted for a chase – but the move backfired even more spectacularly than in Manchester. England patched together a total of 202 despite Salt rarely looking fluent and India puncturing their progress with regular wickets; Prince Yadav impressed with his variations and temperament to pick up 2 for 32, with the highest partnership of the innings 47 between Salt and Sam Curran, who ran hard for 41 off 24.
But any thought that India might be in the game was exploded in the first few overs as they collapsed to 52 for 5. The end was swift, as none of their batters managed to score more than 13, and the innings lasted barely half of the allotted overs.
India’s powerplay fumble
While England had – in relative terms – opted to come out of the blocks like Aesop’s tortoise, India were intent on haring after their target. But they only succeeded in running into trouble. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi slashed his second ball over the head of deep third and then struck his third into the crowd at deep midwicket, either side of Abhishek Sharma carving a Tongue full toss over cover. India had hit three sixes in the first nine balls of the innings; England at the same point had scored a single.
But the risk inherent in playing such shots against the pace of Archer and Tongue soon became apparent. Abhishek spooned a top edge to point – giving Tongue his maiden T20I wicket – then Sooryavanshi was hurried by an Archer bouncer and gloved his fifth ball behind. Ishan Kishan struck the fourth six of the innings in the next over – England didn’t hit as many until the 15th – but then pulled straight to deep backward square leg; one ball later, Shreyas Iyer picked out the same fielder with a flick from the other end.
Axar Patel, up the order at No. 5, then went dot, four, six, out – nicked off for Archer’s third – to leave India five down after five overs and as good as out of the contest.
Tongue gobbles up his rewards
So well were things rolling for England that even when they executed poorly – such as Jos Buttler’s stumping of Tilak Varma – the outcome was still favourable. Varma was beaten in the flight by Will Jacks, but it seemed Buttler had dropped the ball in the process of breaking the bails. Replays, however, showed that he just managed to hold it in his fingertips long enough for the dismissal to count.
In their panic India had thrown Harshit Rana up the order, too, and left Shivam Dube down at No. 8. Dube only lasted four ball, as Tongue returned to beat him for pace with another short one to make it 63 for 7. He added the wicket of Harshit, too, thanks a flying catch at backward point from Tom Banton, giving Tongue his best figures (4 for 28) in T20s. Remarkably, despite being a Notts player, this was Tongue’s home “debut” Trent Bridge. He’ll doubtless be looking forward to his next outing.
Salt’s innings of two halves
England scored their first run from the ninth ball of the innings, with Salt initially playing out a maiden from Arshdeep. They were 7 for 0 off two before Buttler finally kickstarted things, crunching six boundaries from his next 14 balls to suggest this was a typically true Trent Bridge surface after all. Buttler didn’t make it out of the powerplay, but 36 off 22 represented his best return in 11 T20I knocks.
England were 49 for 1 after six, with Salt still single-figures. Their momentum was checked by Prince’s second intervention in the ninth, Harry Brook miscuing a pull, and Salt had puttered along to 17 off 19 by the end of the over. Then he began to open up, pulling a Varun Chakravarthy half-tracker over the ropes and adding back-to-back fours – though Prince really should have prevented the second, indicative of a scruffy all-round effort in the field by India.
Two wickets in two balls from Harshit meant England were increasingly reliant on Salt taking his innings deep. A partnership of 47 off 26 with Curran ensued, featuring plenty of hard running as Salt moved to a 36-ball half-century – his joint-second slowest in T20Is. Arshdeep was then flicked into the crowd at deep backward square, before Salt dumped Axar over long-on for a third six. But he was gone next ball, just as he hoped to cash in on his hard work: Axar taking pace off to induce a top edge to point.
Princely returns
Back in the side for Ravi Bishnoi as India’s one change from Old Trafford, and playing only his second T20I, Prince immediately proved himself to the manor born. Asked to close out the powerplay, he served up the perfect leg-stump yorker first ball to dispatch Buttler; in his second over, he struck second ball, following up a slower delivery that Brook had pumped over cover with a short one with extra mayo that caught the splice of the bat.
His third was a little more expensive, featuring boundaries from Salt and Curran, but he returned to produce a brilliant 19th over, conceding just seven runs – though he missed out on a third wicket when Harshit put down a straightforward chance at deep midwicket.
Alan Gardner is a deputy editor at Cricinfo. @alanroderick
