England captain Jos Buttler was delighted with the efforts of his bowlers after their series-saving T20I victory over India in Rajkot on Tuesday.

Having lost the opening two games in the five-match series, the visitors managed to keep things alive with a 26-run victory, thanks largely to a superb showing with the ball.

Ben Duckett top-scored with 51 and Liam Livingstone (43) smashed five sixes in 21 balls to get England to 171-9 after having been 127-8, though it was on a decent surface where a score of 200 looked eminently possible.

But England's aggressive play after the changeover was what won them the match, with Jamie Overton claiming the best figures for the tourists (3-24).

Adil Rashid, meanwhile, finished 1-15 over four overs, as Buttler suggested he was the team's most important player.

"The guys bowled really well, it was nice to see them show off their skills," said Buttler.

"Adil is the most important player in our team. He was fantastic tonight. He has so many variations, so many different styles of bowling, so we are fortunate to have him in our team.

"With the bat, Ben Duckett is a difficult guy to stop, that's why we felt he could do a job for us at the top. He played beautifully on what was a little bit of a sticky pitch."

While batting, England struggled to contain Varun Chakravarthy, who claimed a five-wicket haul for just 24 runs and was named Man of the Match.

But despite that, Buttler was not too downhearted about their batting performance.

"You could look at how we lost wickets in clumps but we had 170 on the board, which is a really good score," he said.

"I love the way we kept taking the game on. If you can be disappointed in how you play and get 170 that is a great effort."

The fourth T20I in the series will be played on Friday in Maharashtra.