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Varun Chakravarthy (Photograph: X)
India’s spin bowling sensation Varun Chakravarthy struck twice in single over to leave England in trouble. The 33-year-old is playing his first international match in front of his IPL home fans. Varun Chakravarthy played a key role in KKR winning their third title last season and has ensured a swift comeback to the national set up.
The right-arm spinner struck twice in the eighth over to get rid of Harry Brook and Liam Livingstone. The first wicket of the over fell in the third ball when Brook who was batting on 17 got an inside edge. The batter could only see in horror as the ball went onto hit the stumps.
Varun Chakravarthy takes two wickets in an over..!!#INDvsENG#INDvENG#EngvInd#engvsindpic.twitter.com/wPJhMBkiga
— Akr_Cric (@Akr_cric) January 22, 2025
Liam Livingstone came out to bat and signaled his intentions by making room off his very first ball. Varun Chakravarthy though outfoxed the England batter when he bowled a googly to flatten his leg-stump. The visitors had lost two wickets in a space of three balls to be reduced to 65/4 after eight overs.
The 33-year-old could have added one more wicket when there was a huge appeal against Jacob Bethell. Sanju Samson was convinced that the batter was out stumped but the TV umpire ruled it in favor of the batter. It seemed as if Bethell had some part of his feet behind the crease when the bails were dislodged by the keeper.
Arshdeep Singh’s double strike hurt England early
Left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh became the top wicket-taker for India in the T20I format. The 25-year-old first dismissed Phil Salt for a duck and then for the wicket of Ben Duckett for four runs. Salt tried to fend a short ball off Arshdeep only to top edge the ball as Samson took an easy catch.
Ben Duckett played a hilarious scoop shot against Arshdeep and looked to try and up the ante. The left-handed batter was caught by Rinku Singh in a bid to try and flick the ball to the leg-side. At that stage, England were placed at 17/2 with skipper Jos Buttler being joined by Harry Brook.
The pair added 65 runs for the third wicket with Buttler in particular harsh against Hardik Pandya who was smashed for three boundaries in an over. Vice-captain Axar Patel was smashed for 15 runs off his opening over which included two huge sixes.