England cruised to an eight-wicket win in the third T20I against India at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad. Batting first, they reached 156/6 largely due to Virat Kohli’s 46-ball unbeaten 77. It was an excellent recovery, for Mark Wood (4-0-31-3) and Chris Jordan (4-1-35-2) had reduced India to 24/3 at the end of the Powerplay. In comparison, England reached 57/1 at the same time.
Jos Buttler masterminded England’s chase with a career-best 83 not out from 52 balls. Support also came from Jonny Bairstow (40 not out).
England now lead the five-match series 2-1. The last two matches will be played on 18 and 20 March. Ahead of the fourth T20I, here is a statistical preview.
0.888 India’s win-loss ratio against England (8 wins, 9 defeats). They have got a worse ratio only against New Zealand (0.75).
1 run in the last 4 T20I innings for KL Rahul: the sequence reads 0, 1, 0, 0. Before the sequence, his average stood at 45.35 and his strike rate at 145.2. They have now come down to 40.60 and 143.1.
1 catch needed by Virat Kohli (42) to top the list among Indian non-wicketkeepers. He is currently tied with Suresh Raina. Rohit Sharma has held 41 catches.
1 uncapped cricketer in the Indian squad – Rahul Tewatia. He may add to the list of India’s 85 T20I caps.
1.829 win-loss ratio for India, the second-best for any team with a 50-match cut-off. Only Afghanistan (2.24) has better. With 1.178, England are at seventh place.
2.375 win-loss ratio for England over the past three years, the best for any team with a 20-match cut-off. With 2.166, England are at second place.
6 runs needed by Jason Roy (994) and 79 by Dawid Malan (921) to reach 1,000 runs. Whoever does it first will become the sixth England batsman to the milestone, after Eoin Morgan (2,306), Jos Buttler (1,662), Alex Hales (1,644), Kevin Pietersen (1,176), and Jonny Bairstow (1,018).
52 runs needed by Rohit (2,788) to go past Martin Guptill (2,839) and become the second-highest run-scorer in Men’s T20Is. Only Kohli (3,078) has more runs.
64 runs needed by Buttler (1,554) to go past MS Dhoni (1,617) and become the second-highest run-scorer while playing as a wicketkeeper. Only Mohammad Shahzad (1,918) has more.