Despite Suryakumar Yadav’s 360-degree masterpiece on his way to a remarkable hundred, England defeated India by 17 runs in the third T20 International on Sunday.
Dawid Malan scored a magnificent 77 off 39 balls as England destroyed India’s backup attack to declare a whopping 215 for 7.
While chasing the enormous mark, Surykumar (117 off 55 balls) kept India in the game with a masterful performance, while other batters failed to provide help. Concluded, India’s innings were after 20 overs with 198 for 9.
India prevailed in Southampton and Birmingham to win the three-game series 2-1. India struggled to 31 for three in five overs at the beginning of the run chase.
It was another failure for Virat Kohli (11), who was caught at the cover while attempting to make a third successive knock after scoring a four and a straight-six from David Willey. Opening batsmen Rohit Sharma (11) and Rishabh Pant (1) went quickly.
With a 119-run partnership with Shreyas Iyer (28 off 23), who mostly watched his partner’s brilliance, Suryakumar helped India get back into the game.
Suryakumar played with the opposing bowlers and selected his strokes around the field, as he often does.
READ MORE: Joe Gomez Signs a New Liverpool Contract
The two lofted square drives off pacers Richard Gleeson and Chris Jordan that went all the way for six were the highlights of his magnificent innings.
By opening the face of his bat and threading a whole low ball from Willey between backward point and short third man, he became the sixth Indian to achieve a hundred in T20 Internationals.
He hit 14 fours and six sixes in his innings.
Before running out of partners at the opposite end, Suryakumar reduced the equation on his own to 66 off 30 balls, a score that he might achieve.
Earlier, England reached 52 for one in six overs thanks to the captain Jos Buttler (18 off 9 balls) and Jason Roy (27 off 26). After that, Malan and Liam Livingstone (42 not out of 29) had a fun 84-run partnership that laid the groundwork for a massive total.
India rested their top all-arounder Hardik Pandya and their frontline bowlers Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and Yuzvendra Chahal since they had already won the series.
Underwhelmed in the previous two games, the England batting team destroyed the Indian next generation. A lacklustre bowling performance was saved only by Ravi Bishnoi’s effort of two for 30 in four overs.
During his brief appearance, Buttler took advantage of the inexperienced Umran Malik, collecting two fours and a six off the Indian’s first over, which resulted in 17 runs.
With a slower ball that he hit onto the stumps, Avesh Khan misled Buttler.
Malan shifted gears and hit the precise cricketing strokes for which he is renowned after Malik caught behind Roy.
He swiftly pulled and cut against the pacers and swept the spinners for maximums.
Malan’s slog-sweep off Ravindra Jadeja over square leg and pick-up shot off a low full delivery from Avesh stood out among the five sixes.
As he often does, Livingstone dealt in sixes as he hammered four of them and helped propel England beyond 200 along with Chris Jordan (11 off 3), Harry Brook, and others.
Livingstone was given a life when Virat Kohli dropped him in the deep.
England scored one hundred twenty-nine runs in the last 10 overs.
For India, Malik gave up the most runs, finishing with statistics of 1 for 56 in 4 overs.
