India restrict England to 164/6 in 2nd T20I
Ahmedabad, Mar 14: Indian bowlers pulled things back brilliantly in the last five overs to restrict England to 164 for six in the second T20 International here on Sunday.
Sent into bat, England suffered an early jolt in the form of Jos Buttler (0), who was adjudged off Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the third ball of the innings.
Jason Roy (46 off 35) and Dawid Malan (24 off 23) shared 63 runs off 47 balls to take the England innings forward.
But the dangerous-looking partnership was broken by Yuzvendra Chahal in the ninth over when he trapped Malan LBW in front of the crease as India got the review right on this occasion.
Just when Roy was looking dangerous, he was caught at deep square leg by Bhuvneshwar off Washinton Sundar's bowling in the 12th over.
Washington struck again in his next over when he has Jonny Bairstow (20) caught by debutant Suryakumar Yadav at deep square leg.
England captain Eoin Morgan (28 off 20) was the next casualty as in search of big hits, he edged a Shardul Thakur slower delivery to Rishabh Pant behind the stumps.
At 130 for four in the 15th over, England looked well in course of reaching a near 200-run target but the Indian bowlers bowled brilliantly to concede just 34 runs in the last five overs.
Washington (2/29) and Thakur (2/29) were the pick of the bowlers for India.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
