England beat India in 5th T20I to sweep five-match series
Jos Buttler rolled back the years with a sizzling hundred while skipper Harry Brook gave a glimpse of a golden future as England annihilated an out-of-sorts India by 56 runs in the fifth T20 International to complete a historic 4-0 ‘clean sweep’ here on Saturday.
Buttler’s sizzling 64-ball-131 and Brook’s brutal 45-ball-95 not out took England to a virtually insurmountable 257 for 3 on a day when the Indian bowling unit was at its worst.
Buttler and Brook added a whopping 233 runs for the second wicket, a record partnership for any wicket in the history of T20Is.
The chase was out of question as India, despite their most impressive batting show during all seven T20Is in the UK, managed 201 for 8 in the end.
Ishan Kishan (56 off 35) and the universally panned Tilak Varma (53 off 25 balls) got some pressure-free runs, which counted for little, except beefing their personal statistics.
The win also effectively ended India’s 1601 days of uninterrupted pole position in the ICC T20I team rankings.
This was also the sixth game that India lost under new captain Shreyas Iyer, which has resulted in BCCI calling for a review of this shambolic show.
Whatever good things were achieved under previous head coach Rahul Dravid have been completely undone by Gautam Gambhir in trying to put his own stamp in the current set-up.
Currently, it is a dressing room which is divided with lack of trust among the players due to constant chopping and changing, which brews insecurity.
While the attack at all costs philosophy worked well on Indian featherbeds with short boundaries, India’s IPL Czars learnt the hard way that a one-size-fits-all strategy doesn’t always work.
If Brook raced off the blocks to complete his half-century off just 19 balls, Buttler, the veteran, upped the ante, reaching the three-figure mark, which his younger teammate missed by five runs.
Buttler’s first 50 came off 34 balls and the next fifty came off just 17 more deliveries as he switched gears with effortless ease. His innings had 12 boundaries and eight sixes. This was a 35-year-old’s second T20I hundred and his career-best knock.
With series already in the bag, the duo put the Indian attack to the sword with some of the cleanest hitting that one would have witnessed at the Rose Bowl, where Shreyas won his fifth toss and opted to field. While Prasidh Krishna removed the dangerous Phil Salt early, caught at deep fine leg boundary, things went downhill for the visitors thereon. Between Buttler and Brook, they hit as many as 16 sixes — eight each. India’s full team hit eight and there lay the difference.
The pull by the former skipper while taking the top hand off the bat handle off Prasidh over fine leg was certainly the standout shot of the innings.
He had earlier thumped the pacer over long-on for a six. He would stand and deliver, bringing the Indian attack on its haunches.
On the other hand, Brook’s footwork against Axar Patel (0/63 in 4 overs) was pure class as he danced down the track to loft the bowler for a couple of sixes in the 10th over, which yielded 25 runs.
The wheels of the Indian attack came off after the end of that over.
Prince Yadav also got a rare pasting, going for 60 in his four overs.
When it came to pacers, Brook held his shape for the fuller ones and for the slightly back of length stuff, he would make room, shuffling towards the leg-stump to cart the deliveries over extra cover and long off.
With Harshit Rana out of the rest of the tour (including ODIs) with a grade 1 hamstring tear, the team management was compelled to field Suryansh Shedge (0/39 in 3 overs), who is far from being a finished product who could be unleashed in international cricket.
Shreyas gave him a third over, in which Shedge completely lost his length to give away 24 runs.
In the next over, a nervous Prince was given a proper hiding with 21 runs coming off it.
After a certain point, skipper Shreyas was seen standing near the boundary, resigned and looking every bit lost. The result was no different.
