Having won the previous game, India were looking to harness that momentum and take control of the five-match series. A big change to this game was that it was played behind closed doors, a great contrast to the 90,000 people that had watched the previous two encounters in Ahmedabad’s spectacular Motera Stadium.

After a poor performance on Sunday, Tom Curran was replaced by Mark Wood in the only team change for the English. The Indians brought in the experienced Rohit Sharma to open the batting, dropping Suryakumar Yadav after just one game in the side. England won the toss and, unsurprisingly, chose to bowl first – the first two matches had been won by the chasing team.

Jofra Archer nearly struck early on, but failed to hang on to a caught-and-bowled attempt following a straight drive from Rohit. The wickets soon began to fall, however, as Wood marked his return to the side by clean bowling KL Rahul for a four-ball duck. Archer then athletically caught Sharma for 15 runs off 17 balls as India got off to a slow start After such a successful debut, Ishan Kishan skied a Chris Jordan delivery, which was commandingly caught by Jos Buttler, sending Kishan back for just four. Jordan ended up bowling a wicket maiden, meaning the hosts had scored just eight runs in their first three overs. Rishabh Pant and Virat Kohli seemed to be building a strong partnership, but a poor call from Kohli to run on a misfield meant the dangerous Pant was run out for just 25, handing England a crucial wicket.

Shreyas Iyer also failed to build a strong innings, falling for just nine runs off the same number of balls. The Indian partnership of Kohli and Hardik Pandya then began to run up the score. Kohli seemed unstoppable as he managed to get his second consecutive half-century off just 37 balls, and finished on a huge 77 runs. Pandya contributed a useful 17 to bring the home side to a total of 156 – a great score after such a slow start.

Jason Roy had an uncharacteristically sluggish opening to his innings, managing a single run off his first eight balls. He was then caught for just nine runs off 13 balls – the first innings in the series he has not come close to 50. If the English fans were worried about who would step up to dominate the innings, Jos Buttler answered them with two sixes travelling over 90 metres into the empty stands. He was beaten once, by a fantastic delivery by Yuzvendra Chahal, but otherwise showed no weaknesses as he blasted his way to a half-century from just 26 deliveries.

As with the previous matches, the Indian fielding left a lot to be desired, despite Kohli making some quality stops at cover. Dawid Malan was very successful in supporting Buttler’s dominance, but was stumped for 18 after charging down the pitch to a Washington Sundar delivery. In a battle of the superstars, Kohli dropped Jos Buttler on 77 – a shame as Kohli had been leading from the front in the field for the Indian side. Jonny Bairstow was also dropped by Chahal soon after, only increasing Indian frustrations

Bairstow and Buttler were then able to put the drops behind them and bring the match home with 10 balls to spare. Buttler’s unbeaten 83 made him the clear winner of man of the match and will hopefully boost his confidence going into the final two T20s. This win puts England 2-1 ahead in the series, one victory away from a very impressive showing in the subcontinent.

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