Tilak Varma’s fifty of rare brilliance helped India survive a top-order meltdown against England pacers and register a two-wicket win in the second T20I and take a 2-0 lead in the five-match series in Chennai on Saturday. Tilak (72 not out, 55b, 4×4, 5×6) cleverly used the extreme pace of English bowlers to amass runs, and singlehandedly took India past the target, as the hosts finished the night at 166 for eight. It was a mini classic because the left-hander hardly had constant support from the other end and the England bowlers were cock-a-hoop lot after making serious inroads.
Pacer Jofra Archer was his pet hunt of the night, slamming the Sussex man for a total of four sixes, the fourth one taking him past his fifty, as he leaked 60 runs in four overs for the wicket of Sanju Samson.
The left-hander’s inside the line six off pacer Brydon Carse over deep fine leg (3/29) too was highly impressive.
But India had to walk through the panic room before Tilak’s solidity carried them home.
The in-form Abhishek Sharma got India off the block in a blistering fashion, carting Archer for three boundaries in the very first over.
But a 148 kmph nip-backer by pacer Mark Wood pinged him on the back foot and even the DRS, which was taken more in hope than in any real conviction, could not save him.
The dismissal had India at a slightly shaky 15 for one which soon turned into a more concerning 19 for two along with the wicket of Samson.
The nerves were eased when skipper Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak added 39 quick runs for the third wicket to take their side to 58, but the former dragged Carse on to his stumps to give England an opening.
From 58 for three, the English pacers crashed through that creek to bag the wickets of Dhruv Jurel and Hardik Pandya to reduce India to 78 for five.
But Washington Sundar, who was dropped on 10 by Adil Rashid at mid-on off Wood, cashed in on that reprieve, hammering the Durham man for a six and two fours in succession to bring down the mounting asking rate.
However, Washington’s attempt to run a 140 kmph thunderbolt from Carse to the third man saw the ball crashing onto his stumps.
India were 116 for six then. But they found a willing soldier in Tilak.
Earlier, Jos Buttler showed semblance of fight but other English batters didn’t follow the skipper’s suit while succumbing to Indian spinners.
Buttler (45, 30b, 2×4, 3×6) played some delectable shots, including a sequence of 4, 6, 4 off pacer Arshdeep Singh, who got rid of Phil Salt in the first over itself.
Salt pulled the left-arm pacer, who was earlier on the day named as the ICC Men’s T20 Player of the Year, but could not find the distance to get caught by Washington, who replaced injured Nitish Kumar Reddy in the XI, near the square leg boundary.
Washington had a moment of success for himself when Ben Duckett’s reverse sweep off him fell easily into the hands of Jurel, who came in for injured Rinku Singh.
However, the pull shot continued to haunt the English batters for the rest of the night as Buttler and later Liam Livingstone perished playing that shot.
India vice-captain Axar Patel (2/32) was the beneficiary of England batters’ adventurous intentions.
The left-arm spinner bowled into the pitch and the inherent grip on the surface did not allow the batters to impart force and direction to their shots.
Buttler, whose aggression helped England to reach 58 for two in the Power Play overs, was caught by Tilak, while Livingstone ended in the hands of substitute Harshit Rana.
All-rounder Carse, who came in for Gus Atkinson, used the long handle to good effect, making 31 off 17 balls including three sixes but a moment of misunderstanding with Jofra Archer snapped his promising knock.
But the highlight of the England innings was the dismissal of Harry Brook, who began well, smashing a six off spinner Varun Chakravarthy (2/38).
But soon a back of the hand delivery breached Brook’s defence to rattle his off-stump, as the English right-hander could not read it despite Chennai not having any smog.
A couple of beefy blows by lower-order batters helped England go past the 150-run mark but that was not enough.
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