IND vs ENG: ‘Talismanic Tilak Varma’ pushes England away from win in 2nd T20I, India take 2-0 lead in series

Star India batter Tilak Varma held the nerves in Chennai to win the game for his side in the second T20I against England. He stood strong there in the middle amidst a fall of wickets at regular intervals at the other end during the run-chase of the 165-run target. The star number three batter’s unbeaten knock helped the hosts to beat the Three Lions by a narrow 2-wicket margin in the second T20I.

Speaking of the game, India skipper Suryakumar Yadav won the toss and asked Jos Buttler’s man to bat first. The English batting attack resembled their struggle of the first T20I while facing the Indian bowlers. Things didn’t change much for the tourists at the MA Chidambaram compared to the ones they faced at the Eden Gardens in the T20I series opener.

Indian bowlers managed to restrict the tourists at the score of 165 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in the allotted 20 overs. Once again, skipper Jos Buttler took the charge to lead the innings with his determined and gritty knock; he scored 45 runs off 30 balls, with two fours and three sixes. 

Besides him, Jason Smith and Brydon Carse also played the crucial knocks of 22 and 31 runs off just 12 and 17 balls, respectively to help England reach a decent total of 165 runs at the end of 20 overs, losing 9 wickets. 
Vice-captain Axar Patel and star spinner Varun Chakravarthy scalped two wickets each for India, alongside a wicket each bagged by Arshdeep Singh, Hardik Pandya, Washington Sundar, and Abhishek Sharma.

Tilak Varma drives India safely out of trouble

While chasing the target, India didn’t get an ideal start as they lost their both openers at the team’s score of just 19 runs in 2.3 overs. Later, India found them in trouble when they lost 5 wickets at the score of 78 runs. But then came a crucial and quite steady partnership of 36 runs for the sixth wicket between Tilak Varma and all-rounder Washington Sundar.

However, India fell again in trouble after Brydon Carse trapped Sundar in a ‘bowled’ dismissal. It was when India lost their next two wickets in quick succession and the score came to 146 runs for a loss of 8 wickets in 17 overs.

But it was Tilak Varma who kept the Indian hopes alive till the last over, the batter stayed there in the middle, alongside number 10 batter Ravi Bishnoi. Varma and Bishnoi stitched an unbeaten partnership of 20 runs to help India cross the line in 19.2 overs, scoring 166 runs for the loss of 8 wickets. Tilak Varma won the ‘Player of the Match’ award for his Talismanic knock of 72 runs off 55 balls, with 4 fours and five sixes and taking two catches in the first innings.

Eventually, India won the game by 2 wickets to get a lead of 2-0 in the five-match series before heading to Rajkot for the third T20I of the series.