By Will Macpherson and Rob Bagchi
India (9-247) def. England (97 from 10.3 overs)
When Brendon McCullum brought his England Test team to India a year ago, they lost 4-1, and they received an utter shellacking in the final match. And so it was for McCullum’s Twenty20 team in his first assignment as white-ball head coach. Perhaps it is good that the ODI series, which starts on Thursday, is only three matches long.
This was a brutal, humbling defeat that smashed a bevy of unwanted English records. Defeat by 150 runs made it their heaviest in T20 internationals (beating a 90-run defeat to India 13 years ago); within that, the 247 they conceded was just one shy of the biggest total they have surrendered in the format, and they responded with their shortest completed innings (just 10.3 overs), as they were bowled out for 97.
They conceded more sixes (19) than ever before. Thirteen of those came from the bat of the extraordinary Abhishek Sharma, who made 135 from just 54 balls, the second-highest individual score against England. With the bat, Phil Salt scored 55, and no one else managed more than 10. They lost their last six wickets for 15 runs, four of them to part-timers, one of whom was Abhishek, and the other was Shivam Dube, who was playing despite being concussed just two nights ago. India were simply toying with England.
“We were really outplayed,” said the phlegmatic England captain, Jos Buttler, in the understatement of the tour. “I’ve played quite a lot of cricket and credit to Abhishek Sharma, that’s as clean as any ball-striking I’ve seen. That was one of the best T20 knocks I’ve been on the receiving end of. We couldn’t stop him.”
Any international at the Wankhede is a special occasion, with fans flocking in from Marine Drive, and a flat pitch and short boundaries combining for all-action cricket. The great and the good turn out; on this occasion that included the Duke of Edinburgh, here on business, and the former prime minister, Rishi Sunak, watching for pleasure alongside Asia’s richest family, the Ambanis, who are the new co-owners of Oval Invincibles.
England didn’t have answers for India in the final Twenty20.Credit: Getty Images
The last time Buttler and his team met Sunak they were celebrating a T20 World Cup win, in Australia in 2022. In the semi-final in Adelaide, they humiliated India by 10 wickets. This could not have been more different as the favour was returned by a new, fresh group of fearless Indian players. Buttler will no doubt be relieved that the likes of Abhishek and Varun Chakravarthy, who took two more wickets to finish the series with 14 at an average under 10, are not in the squad for the ODIs or the Champions Trophy that follows. On this evidence, it is extraordinary that they are not, and England may even be relieved to see the likes of Virat Kohli turning up in Nagpur this week.
Jofra Archer’s first ball, to Sanju Samson, was hit for six, setting up a brutal opening in which India racked up 127 for the loss of Samson, caught in the deep off Mark Wood, in the first eight overs. At that stage, with Abhishek running amok, it was worth wondering if India could better the 297 they scored against Bangladesh in Hyderabad in October, or even if they should consider the first declaration in T20 international history. It really was that one-sided. “At one point I was thinking I don’t want to be the team that concedes 300 for the first time,” said Buttler.
From there, England actually did well to pull it back. For that they had Brydon Carse, their player of the series, to thank. He came on in the ninth over and immediately resorted to death-over skills, with yorkers and variations, picking up a wicket in each of his first three overs. Wood joined in, bowling impressively at the death. It was the unusually expensive Adil Rashid who eventually dismissed Abhishek, caught at deep-point, ending a stunning innings full of gorgeous strokes down the ground. Jamie Overton was brutalised, while Archer recorded the second-most expensive figures of his T20 career, with the worst coming in Chennai earlier in the series.
“You always sit down and think what more could we have done or how we could have stopped him but some days I think you have to give a lot of credit to the opposition,” said Buttler.
Abhishek Sharma blasted 135 against England.Credit: Getty Images
At the break, with dew setting in, the target did not seem impossible. England were blown away, though.
“Chasing big scores like that, it generally goes one of two ways,” Buttler said. “You either get somewhere near or you fall in a heap and today was that day. If you are going to chase 248, you are going to have to take some risks, and they are going to have to come off. Phil Salt played beautifully, struck the ball really well, and we needed a few more guys to catch fire if you are going to chase a score down like that.”
Such an explanation would be fine if the failures were not so familiar and frustrating. Their batting lacks calculation and craft, especially against spin. Three bowlers – Chakravarthy, Dube and Abhishek – struck with their first ball. Another, Ravi Bishnoi, took a wicket, Harry Brook again, with his second. Liam Livingstone holed out to the first ball he faced from Chakravarthy, refusing to take a look.
Throughout the series, India’s spinners have had the wood over England’s middle order, including Buttler, their best player of spin. England’s top five have all made a single contribution in the series, but failed more often than not. The case for Joe Root, an interested spectator ahead of the ODIs, grows stronger with next year’s T20 World Cup looming. The jury is very much out on whether McCullum’s team – in fact any of McCullum’s teams – can combat spin in these conditions.
England had their moments in this series, but it was bookended by two humiliating defeats orchestrated by Abhishek and Chakravarthy and revelled in by packed-out crowds baying for Bazball blood. They have much to work on.
The Telegraph, London
