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1 hour ago
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Key events
7th over: India 75-2 (Kishan 26, Iyer 17) Liam Dawson getting a rare chance for England, very good over first up. Varies his pace, works over the Indian batters, keeping them to singles and leg byes until the final ball, when Shreyas Iyer flicks four through the leg side. Nonetheless, the over drives up the required rate for India.
6th over: India 65-2 (Kishan 25, Iyer 9) The captain not messing around, he slams Curran down the ground first ball for four. Then gets one short enough to pull the ball fine.
“If it wasn’t for the crowd they might as well call this game and go home,” emails Richard Slassor. I’d just wait to see when the next wicket falls before making that call.
Ten from the over, and the wicket. India need 193 from 84. India with a few more runs from the Powerplay than England scored, but one more wicket.
WICKET! Samson c Bethell b Curran 27, India 55-2
No good! Samson just props forward at a medium pace delivery and chips it to cover. Curran gets a wicket with his first ball of the day.
5th over: India 55-1 (Samson 27, Kishan 25) Keeping India in touch, is Ishan Kishan. Finds another six for this team from Josh Tongue, using the short ball and swivelling to hit it very fine, then guides another ball fine on the other side of the keeper to deep third for four. A dozen from the over. 203 more needed in 90 balls.
4th over: India 43-1 (Samson 27, Kishan 13) India still having a go, with Jacks coming on to bowl spin. A boundary for Kishan sweeping, another for Samson over mid off, though in between times Samson was almost caught at backward point. Just short of Curran.
India need 215 more to win.
3rd over: India 33-1 (Samson 22, Kishan 8) Archer tries going short, but Ishan Kishan doesn’t mind. He’s very short himself, so he arches his back to uppercut a boundary, then slams one squarer.
WICKET! Abishek Sharma c Buttler b Archer 3, India 25-1
Pokey little shot from Abishek, trying to rotate the strike, but instead he dabs the ball into the wicketkeeper’s gloves.
2nd over: India 23-0 (Samson 21, Abishek 2) Sanju has a point to prove! Left out of the side just after being the key to India’s T20 World Cup win: you could understand why the management wanted to have a look at Sooryavanshi given his red-hot IPL, but it still would have been galling for the incumbent. So he’ll enjoy hitting Josh Tongue for six, once, then twice, both from shorter balls hit over the leg side.
1st over: India 10-0 (Samson 9, Abishek 1) Jofra Archer with the ball, bowling a tight channel outside off, but Samson manages to just squeeze his straight hit past Brook at mid off, then nicks a ball fine for four more. 10 from the first, though they need about 13 an over.
India need 258 to win
They came here wanting to avoid being swept, and they look very much like a team that will be swept. Horrible display from India in the field, drops and fumbles and all the rest, bowling that just got met wherever it went. Only seven overs conceded runs in single figures.
England’s partnership was 233, only three runs behind the Full Member record of 236 that Afghanistan set against Ireland, and only behind two other stands in all T20 International cricket. Germany had a 238 against Austria, and Japan a 258 against China, and safe to say the bowling and the boundary sizes would have aided those efforts more than they did this.
20th over: England 257-3 (Brook 95, Jacks 7) Brook up to 90, backs away from the yorker and smokes it down the ground. Then he plays a leave! Thinks he’ll get a wide called, but it’s right on the blue touch paper outside off. Dot ball, on 90, with four to go.
Should be caught now… and dropped! Deep square leg, Ishan Kishan under it, and somehow lets it through his hands. Brook has jogged through, expecting to be out, but that now means that he’s lost strike. Jacks gets him a single and strike back, meaning he needs a six and a four.
He doesn’t get either. Scores two apiece from the final two balls to reach 95 not out, should have been run out coming back for the second on the final ball, but some more horrible fielding and that chance is also botched.
19th over: England 247-3 (Brook 86, Jacks 6) The hat-trick ball… is hit for six! This is pure silliness. Nice ball on a length for Jacks, who tee-balls it over the leg side.
Brook has one more over to try to get a ton himself. He’s sat on 86 for a long time.
WICKET! Bethell c Tilak v Dube 0, England 241-3
Dube is on a hat-trick! Bethell does the team thing, looks for a big shot, and is caught down the ground.
Six, six, four, wicket, wicket…
WICKET! Buttler c Iyer b Dube 131, England 241-2
Drown them in honey. A spicy call, Shivam Dube on for his first over in the 19th… and Buttler hits him for six! Over cover.
Six more! Down the ground.
Four more, through the leg side now. The partnership is 233… and over.
A tired Buttler tries to launch another six, hits this up in the air, and finally India hold onto one, via the captain.
Buttler has made 131 from 64 balls.
18th over: England 225-1 (Buttler 115, Brook 86) Prasidh Krishna, and suddenly the runs have stopped flying from the bat. A hot day in Southampton, into the 30s. Another dot ball! Buttler drives at width and misses. Connects with the third ball, drive for two, and the partnership of 211 has passed India’s best, set by two players who are on the field right now: Sanju Samson and Tilak Varma. Buttler follows up with a scoop for four.
The stand is 217 at the end of the over. Only five bigger partnerships in all T20 Internationals, only two bigger partnerships involving Test nations, and all of those were opening stands where this is for the second wicket.
17th over: England 217-1 (Buttler 108, Brook 86) This partnership is past 200 now. Only a few such stands among the Full Member nations. They’ve just gone past Pakistan’s 203 against England. India have a 210 against South Africa, Australia had 223 against Zimbabwe, and Afghanistan 236 against Ireland.
Arshdeep comes back, has an lbw review that is pitching outside leg. Calms the scoring rate for a minute, doesn’t get hit for any, though he bowls a few wides. Wide, leg bye, wide, single, wide, dot, dot, wide… still two balls to go that could get whacked. Or dropped! Tilak Varma down the ground has to dive forward at the shot from Brook, and the ball spills at long off. Maybe just on the half volley into the hands. Single, then a Buttler single, eight from the over including the four wides. Weirdly… good bad over?
Century! Jos Buttler 101 from 51 balls
16th over: England 209-1 (Buttler 106, Brook 85) Wind the half-century counter back to 28 for Buttler in this format, and add one to his century tally. That’s only his second century for England in 20-over cricket, as unlikely as that seems. It’s his ninth in all T20 cricket. Reaches it with a pulled six from Axar, clean as you like. Then it should be ton and done, as Buttler whacks a ball to the fielder at deep cover, but Shedge shells it. India gone to pieces. Brook does a Buttler, pulls a six himself. Buttler nicks four to end the over. The river runs England’s way.
15th over: England 189-1 (Buttler 93, Brook 78) More wobbly fielding, it’s Bishnoi the sub again, fumbling a straight drive from Buttler for four. Prince Yadav can’t blame the fielder for the second ball though, which Buttler hits in the same direction for six.
Next ball, six again, this time just dinked over deep square leg to drop just over the rope.
Prince tries the wide yorker, Buttler nudges it past short third for four. It’s a mashing out there. That’s the third over to go for more than 20 today.
14th over: England 168-1 (Buttler 78, Brook 72) Shedge back, like Prasidh he beats Brook with the short ball, evading the uppercut. But when Shedge tries to play the classic bouncer-yorker double, he misses his length on the second part of the deal, and Brook smokes the full ball for six. Back to the short ball, not bad, cramps Brook who is trying to cut, and the top edge flies for four.
A couple more runs to midwicket, thanks to a Kishan misfield, and that’s also an overstep by Shedge. Brook doesn’t take full toll of the free hit, miscuing it high, and sub fielder Ravi Bishnoi thinks it might be too risky trying to take the catch, instead letting it fall to ground to make sure he doesn’t let the ball past him for more runs.
Brook doesn’t need a free hit to smack a six though. He ends the over with another one, bowled on a length and hit down the ground. That over costs 24.
13th over: England 144-1 (Buttler 72, Brook 56) Prasidh back, goes for the short-ball ploy against Brook and starts the over well in that regard. Two, dot, single as Brook negotiates the short length. But that brings Buttler on strike, and he plays a no-look pull shot for six! The ball is following him towards leg, Buttler steps across and helps it on its way without bothering to watch the ball. Don’t waste the energy.
12th over: England 132-1 (Buttler 64, Brook 53) India go back to Axar, even though he’s gone for 34 from two overs. He slows the rate a bit, only one boundary from the six balls as Buttler drags one to leg.
“Afternoon Geoff,” writes Brian Withington. “Good job I didn’t press send on my earlier draft that had consigned Jos ‘Tin Gloves’ Buttler to a long overdue retirement…”
More games for England across formats than any other player.
Half century! Jos Buttler 50 from 34 balls
11th over: England 123-1 (Buttler 57, Brook 51) Positively sedate from Buttler by comparison, but still at a very good pace for his milestone. Shedge doesn’t find his second over as easy as his first, as Buttler clubs width over cover and then over point to the rope both times, for T20I half century #29.
Half century! Harry Brook 50 from 19 balls
10th over: England 111-1 (Buttler 46, Brook 50) Axar Patel is having a mare. Starts the over with two more sixes from Brook, banging him dead straight. Four runs behind point, then five wides past the keeper! Sanju Samson should have stopped that, Axar trying to bowl tight into the pads to deny Brook room to swing his arms, but straying fractionally. The over costs 25! England are on for 200+ at this rate. I thought we were about to mention a Buttler fifty, but Brook has beaten him there.
There have only been three England 50s faster than 19 balls (Moeen, Livingstone, Buttler) and three others from 19 balls (Salt, Salt, Bethell). So Brook is right up there.
9th over: England 86-1 (Buttler 45, Brook 31) Brook is looking very good when he makes contact. Smacks Prince Yadav over mid off for four. Buttler follows up with a boundary that takes him past Alex Hales’ mark of 14,449 runs in all T20 cricket. Buttler is about 100 runs short of Chris Gayle in second spot, and about 300 short of Kieran Pollard in first, but Hales and Pollard are both still current players on the circuit, so the race continues.
8th over: England 73-1 (Buttler 39, Brook 25) Here’s Shedge, with some modest looking medium pace, but he dishes up four dots in a row to Buttler. Beats the scoop, makes him miscue the pull. Then some support on the backward point boundary saves Shedge from conceding four, only two as Buttler deflects the ball. Last ball? Shedge has done very well! A single to cover.
7th over: England 70-1 (Buttler 36, Brook 25) Five balls from Axar Patel without a six is as many as Brook is prepared to tolerate. Skips down to the last ball from the left-arm spinner and pings it over the cover rope.
6th over: England 61-1 (Buttler 34, Brook 18) Ohhh dear. Shivam Dube makes rather of a hash of that catch attempt. Prince Yadav has Brook smacking one straight up in the air, Dube has ground to make up towards deep third, but loses his bearings vis-a-vis the ball in the sky. Twisting, turning, like a paper figurine strung on a mobile, he in the end doesn’t get a hand to the ball as it comes to rest untouched.
What does Harry Brook do? He carts the next two balls over the leg side for six.
That over costs 17, the last went for 15, so England end up with a good Powerplay after a poor start.
5th over: England 44-1 (Buttler 33, Brook 3) Now the ramp to the other side of the pitch! Arshdeep’s third over, Buttler taxes the first ball for four. That ball isn’t full either, it’s quite short, but the batter gets a touch on it. Now six, smeared over deep mid. A brace, and pinches the strike again last ball of the over with a single. Keep waiting, Harry.
4th over: England 29-1 (Buttler 18, Brook 3) There’s the scoop from Buttler, simply placing the bat in place and allowing the ball to do the work, which it does for four. Prasidh Krishna though gets the following ball to keep low, that’s interesting, it crashes into Buttler’s thigh from a short length. Not so a couple of balls later, as Krishna dishes one up full outside off, and Buttler creams it down the ground for six. An off-side wide to follow. Late single means that Buttler keeps strike, maybe the former captain is trying to make sure that the new bloke gets a few minutes to calm down. A dozen from the over.
3rd over: England 17-1 (Buttler 7, Brook 3) Buttler finally gets a shot away, decent pull shot against Arshdeep to the fence, but it’s the only notable score from the over, and a quiet start for England extends to half the Powerplay.
Andrew Cosgrove emails in. “I have spent most of the day stuck in a Bengaluru traffic jam, so like you I chuckled to hear that the Indian coach has been delayed. Presumably over here they get a police escort to clear the road ahead (although there’s only so much that can do, I suppose). I’ve been discussing with my (Indian) partner, maybe it would have been worth trying Sooryavanshi at 3 or 4 to take a bit of the pressure off. What do you think?”
I’d say that in many ways there’s less pressure as an opener, because you don’t have to adapt to different match situations. The Kid has a clear plan to hit big as early as possible, so doing that with the field up is in his favour. He’s more devastating against pace than spin, so opening makes it more likely that he’ll get pace. And he’s not been cowed by facing big-name bowlers, so there’s no real downside. Just that it’s not as easy to launch bowling on varying pitches around the world as it is on IPL pitches.
2nd over: England 10-1 (Buttler 1, Brook 2) Giant ugly swat at the ball from, who else, Harry Brook. Misses the lot. Ishan Kishan has had the gloves taken off him today by Samson, but he’s still trying to play wicketkeeper from cover, appealing for a catch and then lobbying for a review. The captain ignores him, and Brook had missed it on the replay. Brook off the mark next ball pulling two.
WICKET! Salt c Shedge b Krishna 6, England 8-1
Prasidh Krishna, who is both the giant and the beanstalk, opens up from the other end, and the first boundary of the day comes via a Phil Salt straight drive. Nothing huge or wallopy, as is often his wont. Crisp past the bowler. But that’s as good as his day will get, as he lines up the next ball and whacks it out to deep square leg, and while there are only two boundary riders allowed so early in the innings, he has found one of them on the full. Shedge on debut takes the catch.
1st over: England 4-0 (Salt 2, Buttler 1) Another quiet opening over for England with the bat. Arshdeep Singh is swinging the ball with his left-arm efforts, and neither Salt nor Buttler tries anything expansive.
Looks like we’re finally going to get a game.
Teams - The Kid is out
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has indeed been dropped for the first time in his career, with Samson coming back, and Suryansh Shedge making his debut. His surname doesn’t rhyme with hedge, if you’re wondering, it’s pronounced more like Shed-geh.
Dawson comes in for England, spinning all-rounder.
England
Phil Salt
Jos Buttler +
Harry Brook *
Jacob Bethell
Tom Banton
Sam Curran
Will Jacks
Liam Dawson
Jofra Archer
Adil Rashid
Josh Tongue
India
Sanju Samson +
Abishek Sharma
Ishan Kishan
Shreyas Iyer *
Shivam Dube
Tilak Varma
Suryansh Shedge
Axar Patel
Prince Yadav
Arshdeep Singh
Prasidh Krishna
Harry Brook says he wanted to bat anyway, so happy days. Iyer says the wicket won’t change much, so presumably India want to know the task ahead of them with the bat.
India win the toss and will bowl
Shreyas Iyer calls heads correctly, and there’s a small bump in fortunes for India.
There we have it: the toss will be 45 minutes after the scheduled time, then a shortened break before play, which will start 30 minutes after the scheduled time.
Footage on the telly of India’s players arriving at the ground. We’re waiting on revised start times.
Also remarkable, considering the adventure that is travelling by road in Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Bengaluru, that Indian teams still consistently reach the ground on time in all of those places, but had to come to England to get a bad enough traffic jam to keep them from playing.
Start delayed
This is a comical one. The start of this match will be delayed. Not because of rain, not because of lightning. Not because of bees. Not because of stray crossbow bolts. No, the start of this match will be delayed because of… traffic.
The Indian bus is stuck in traffic, and the players couldn’t get to the ground in time.
Who would have predicted that the cricket ground nestled between two motorways, miles outside of the nearest town, with no reasonable means of getting there by public transport, would have problems with traffic?
Ah well, good thing there’s an Ashes Test scheduled there next year, no doubt that will go swimmingly.
Preamble
Geoff will be here shortly.
