India clinched a 3-2 Twenty20 series victory over England after coming out on top in a high-scoring decider at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
The hosts triumphed by 36 runs as they prevailed for a second successive outing after being put into bat by visiting skipper Eoin Morgan, with the previous encounters all won by the team chasing.
Captain Virat Kohli – shifted up to open – led the way with 80 not out as India amassed 224-2, their fourth highest total in the shortest format.
Jos Buttler and Dawid Malan both made half-centuries as England raced out of the blocks in reply, yet their chase ran out of steam. Unable to hit boundaries regularly when it mattered, they finished up on 188-8.
India had also made a fast start when they batted thanks mainly to Rohit Sharma. He dominated an opening partnership worth 94, belatedly making a major contribution in the series with 64 from just 34 deliveries.
Ben Stokes finally ended the initial onslaught thanks to an inside edge onto the stumps, though there was little respite for England's bowlers as the runs continued to flow.
Suryakumar Yadav (32) wasted little time in going on the attack, hitting the second and third deliveries he faced during an Adil Rashid over for six, though the leg-spinner would later dismiss the right-hander thanks to a stunning catch in the deep.
Jason Roy ended up holding the ball, though his role was a minor one. Chris Jordan had taken a superb one-handed effort on the run from long-on, then passed it on to his waiting team-mate before stepping over the boundary.
Still, Hardik Pandya capitalised on his promotion up to four with 39 not out, combining with Kohli to add 81. Mark Wood and Chris Jordan both registered unwanted half-centuries with the ball, while Jofra Archer finished with 0-43 from his four overs.
England lost Jason Roy for a duck in the first over, yet Buttler and Malan made 52 and 68 respectively to keep the game firmly in the balance.
However, amid the run-scoring carnage, Bhuvneshwar Kumar claimed 2-15, including the crucial wicket of Buttler. The seam bowler's economical four overs helped put the brakes on England, who were 104-1 at the halfway stage before slipping off the pace.
World Cup on the horizon
The top two-ranked nations in T20 cricket did not disappoint in a series that offered the opportunity to explore options ahead of the World Cup on Indian soil later this year.
Kohli finished up averaging 115.5, yet new faces Yadav and Ishan Kishan also caught the eye for India with the bat. Similarly, Malan – who became the fastest player to 1,000 international runs in the format – showed in the finale how he can change his approach, depending on the match situation.
Jordan goes the distance
Not for the first time in his career, Jordan produced a sensational catch, this time to see off Yadav. However, while a fantastic asset in the field, he has struggled to have an impact with the ball in the five games.
Between overs 17-20, Jordan has been hit for eight sixes in the series. That is five more than the rest of the England attack combined, while an economy rate of 13.5 in that period will be a concern for captain Morgan.
Josh Hazlewood set to be fit for Ashes despite missing Test Championship final
Australia pace bowler Josh Hazlewood will miss the World Test Championship final against India at the Kia Oval – little more than a week before the Ashes begins.
Hazlewood has been managing an Achilles issue as well as a side injury that flared up during the recent Indian Premier League, but Cricket Australia insists the 32-year-old will be fit for the start of this summer’s showdown with England at Edgbaston on June 16.
“Josh was very, very close to being given the green light but we are cognisant that our upcoming schedule means this is not a one-off Test match for us,” Australia chair of selectors George Bailey told cricket.com.au.
“This will give Josh an ideal preparation leading into Edgbaston. With six Test matches in a little over seven weeks we will need all of our fast bowling assets.”
Hazlewood has played just four Tests in the past three years due to a series of injuries but shared a stint of new-ball bowling with five-day skipper Pat Cummins during the team’s preparation in England.
He returned early from his recent spell in the IPL due to a side issue, having been ruled out of the preceding Test campaign in India with a recurrence of the Achilles problem he sustained in the final five-day match of the Australia summer.
Speaking on Saturday about the close proximity of the India decider, which starts on Wednesday, and the first Ashes Test, Hazlewood said: “It’s probably one or the other for me at this stage.
“Just being over here for the last week and bowling in England, it does feel a lot easier on the body compared to Australia or India where it can be hot, the wickets are really hard and you’ve got to bend your back to get something out of them.
“In England it feels like you can just take that couple of per cent off, bowl a bit within yourself and the wicket does enough for you.”
Michael Neser has joined the official 15-man Australia party, but Scott Boland is likely to partner Cummins and Mitchell Starc at the Oval.
Neser, who has been training with the Australia squad alongside another reserve quick bowler Sean Abbott, has been playing for Glamorgan in the LV= County Championship and taken 19 wickets at 25.63.
Australia coach Andrew McDonald said the tight turnaround between the WTC final and the five-Test Ashes series has to be taken into account in managing their fast bowlers.
McDonald said: “Definitely consideration for (the schedule) – we don’t want to go too far ahead.
“We’ve got the WTC final to play, which we are excited about, but on the back of that we have to quickly turn our attention to England and the Ashes.
“There are short turnarounds there. That’s nothing we’re not used to.
“So, there’ll always be considerations around management. I’d say there’d be some moving parts amongst the quicks.”
St Lucia Kings retains Johnson Charles, Alzarri Joseph among seven ahead of 2023 CPL season
Explosive opener Johnson Charles and fast bowler Alzarri Joseph are among seven players retained by the Saint Lucia Kings ahead of the 2023 Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League (CPL).
Charles and Joseph are joined by Barbadian middle-order batsman Roston Chase, Roshon Primus, Jeavor Royal, Matthew Forde and McKenny Clarke. The Kings have also secured the services of Khary Pierre who has been transferred to the team from the Trinbago Knight Riders.
The tournament gets underway on 16 August with the final taking place on 24 September. There will be matches in Barbados, Guyana, St Kitts & Nevis, Saint Lucia and Trinidad & Tobago.
The overseas players and draft picks will be announced during the Republic Bank CPL draft show which will be broadcast at the end of June 2023.
Ben Duckett leads the way with record hundred as England turn screw on Ireland
Ben Duckett marked his first Test innings on home soil with a chanceless and record-breaking 150 to help England reach lunch on day two on 325 for one with total control of the one-off Test with Ireland.
Duckett had closed the opening day on 60 not out but raced through to his milestone with a succession of drives to bring up his second red-ball century for his country from 106 deliveries.
In his 10th Test since his debut in Bangladesh in 2016, opener Duckett showed why he is the perfect fit for Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes’ aggressive ‘Bazball’ style to reach his 150 off the same amount of balls and in the process beat Australian great Don Bradman’s record for the quickest 150 at Lord’s.
Duckett walked off at lunch unbeaten on 161 with a strike rate of 100.62 alongside Ollie Pope, who had not been at his fluent best but played his part with 97 not out in an unbroken 216-run partnership for the second wicket and will eye his own place on the Lord’s honours board in the afternoon session.
Day one of this Ashes summer started “almost perfectly” in the words of Stuart Broad, whose five-wicket haul helped bowl Ireland out quickly after tea and saw England almost into a lead by the close.
England barely needed 15 minutes to move beyond the tourists’ total on the second day with Duckett, who had been watchful following Zak Crawley’s dismissal on Thursday night, again in fine touch.
Duckett cut the first ball of the day to the boundary and a drive straight down the ground off Graham Hume nudged England into a lead after 29.2 overs, 27 fewer than it had taken red-ball novices Ireland to reach 172.
Another drive saw Duckett move into the eighties and within sight of a second century at Lord’s this season after he hit 177 here for Nottinghamshire in April.
With Mark Adair struggling with his line and length, Duckett raced onto 99 with a cover drive and flick off his pads down to the fine leg boundary in a 35th over that brought up the hundred partnership with Pope.
The next over produced further milestones with Duckett able to celebrate three figures after he nudged into the leg side for a single to short midwicket.
Duckett held his arms aloft after he made it to a hundred from 106 deliveries, having hit 14 boundaries in a chanceless innings where the only hint of danger occurred when he raced down the wicket for a quick single before he equally rapidly turned back off Adair’s second over of the day.
With Duckett’s name on the Lord’s honours board, Pope set about joining him and reached fifty in the same over.
Pope had looked at his effortless best at the end of day one, hitting five fours to close on 29 not out off 35 balls, but was more frenetic during the first hour with the occasional play and miss married with the odd boundary down to third man that did not always look completely controlled.
Despite that, England were still rattling along at more than six runs an over with Ireland lacking the X-factor of rested seamer Josh Little following his Indian Premier League exploits.
Off-spinner Andrew McBrine and debutant Fionn Hand were tasked with stemming the flow of runs after the drinks break and while they momentarily did, Pope survived a review for lbw to close in on his own century.
The session belonged to Duckett though, who started to bring out the sweep shot and two off Hand helped him beat Bradman’s previous record of 150 off 163 deliveries during the 1930 Ashes.
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