India vs England, 3rd T20: Chahal blows England away

Bengaluru: All it takes is for one domino to fall goes the theory. And Yuzvendra Chahal proved just that as the spinner instigated a spectacular collapse to allow India a comfortable 75-run over England in the third and final T20 international at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Wednesday.

A match that looked like it was heading for a close finish was turned on its head when Chahal (6/25), with a second spell of 2-0-6-5, dismissed Eoin Morgan at 119/3 to cause a cataclysmic collapse over the next 18 balls, which produced eight runs and eight wickets, to allow Virat Kohli clinch his first T20 series as captain. Jasprit Bumrah fetched 3/14 playing good support.

Chasing 203 for victory, England finished with 127 in 16.3 overs but will be left scratching their head as to how they slumped to the defeat following solid efforts with the willow from Jason Roy (32, 23b), Joe Root and Eoin Morgan (40, 21b).

Earlier, Suresh Raina produced a timely reminder of his abilities even as Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh rolled back the years to fire India to 202/6.

Raina produced a masterful innings showcasing timing and precision to top the scoring charts with a 45-ball 63. His innings was peppered with five sixes and two boundaries.

Dhoni played the anchor role before picking up the pace during his 36-ball 56 while Yuvraj (27 off 10) proved he still remained a force with a 23-run hammering of Chris Jordan in the 18th over.

Both teams made one change each with Rishab Pant, the youngest debutant for India in T20s, in for Manish Pandey while the visitors opted to go with Liam Plunkett instead of Liam Dawson.

England removed Kohli in the second over when a miscommunication with K.L. Rahul ended with the former being run out by Jordan.

But the visitors failed to capitalise on their positive start as India pulled off three 50-plus partnerships in a row.

Scorecard
India: V. Kohli (run out) 2, K. Rahul b Stokes 22, S. Raina c Morgan b Plunkett 63, M.S. Dhoni c Rashid b Jordan 56, Yuvraj Singh c Buttler b Mills 27, R. Pant (not out) 6, H.H. Pandya (run out) 11. Extras: (b 4, lb 3, w 8) 15.
Total: (for 6 wkts, in 20 overs) 202.
FoW:  1-4, 2-65, 3-120, 4-177, 5-191, 6-202.
Bowling: Mills 4-0-32-1 (4w), Jordan 4-0-56-1 (2w), Plunkett 2-0-22-1, Stokes 4-0-32-1 (2w), Ali 4-0-30-0, Rashid 2-0-23-0

England: Jason Roy c Dhoni b Mishra 32, Sam Billings c Raina b Chahal 0, Root lbw b Chahal 42, Eoin Morgan c Pant b Chahal 40, Jos Buttler c Kohli b Bumrah 0, Ben Stokes c Raina b Chahal 6, Moeen Ali c Kohli b Chahal 2, Liam Plunkett b Bumrah 0, Chris Jordan st Dhoni b Chahal 0, Adil Rashid (not out) 0, Tymal Mills c Kohli b Bumrah 0. Extras: 5 (lb 2, w 3). Total: (in 16.3 overs) 127
FoW: 1-8, 2-55, 3-113, 4-119, 5-119, 6-123, 7-127, 8-127, 9-127
Bowling: Nehra 31-1-24-0 (1w), Chahal 4-0-25-6, Bumrah 2.3-0-14-3, Mishra 4-0-23-1 (1w), Pandya 2-0-17-0, Raina 1-0-22-0 (1w)