India aim to improve in decisive contest vs England (Preview)

With England winning the second Twenty20 International to level the series at 1-1, India will aim to improve the performance and win the third and decisive contest here on Sunday.

In the second match, England bowling attack restricted India to a below-par score of 148/5.

Leaving their previous mistakes behind which they committed in the first T20I, the English bowlers came accurate with the line and length as they struck at regular intervals to deny the visitors post a challenging total on batting-friendly wicket.

Apart from skipper Kohli (47), Mahendra Singh Dhoni (32 not out) no other Indian batsmen clicked and went cheaply. Suresh Raina, however, tried to contribute but the Uttar Pradesh batsmen only managed to score 27 runs.

So, if India want to seal the series, then top-order batsmen like Shikhar Dhawan, who failed in both the matches, Rohit Sharma, Lokesh Rahul need to score big.

In the bowling department, unlike first match, Bowlers failed to impress. Pacer Umesh Yadav was the only sucessful bowling, scalping two wickets. Other bowlers--Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal only managed to take one wicket.

In order to restrict England to dominate the visitors, the spin duo of Kuldeep and Chahal have to click along with the pacers.

England, on the other hand, seemed like they did their homework perfectly. After they got thrashing in the first match, the hosts bounced back in style in the second match, thanks to some good bowling and batsman Alex Hales.

Right from the start, England were better team with both bat and ball. Firstly their bowlers did a fantastic job to restrict India to a below-par score and then batsmen, especially Hales and Johnny Bairstow (28) made the road easy for the hosts.

In the final match, their might be only one concern. After getting the start, their top-order batsmen are getting out. Jason Roy (15) Jos Buttler (14), Joe Root along with Eoin Morgan (17) got the start but failed to convert into big innings.

The bowling department also seemed settled but towards the end the English bowers are leaking runs. So to trouble the Indian side, bowlers need to stop the flow of runs towards the end and top-order batsmen need to click.

Squads:

England: Jason Roy, Jos Buttler (wk), Alex Hales, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan (c), Jonny Bairstow, David Willey, Liam Plunkett, Chris Jordan, Adil Rashid, Jake Ball, Sam Curran, Dawid Malan, Moeen Ali.

India: Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Lokesh Rahul, Virat Kohli (c), Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Dinesh Karthik, Manish Pandey, Krunal Pandya, Deepak Chahar, Siddarth Kaul.

--IANS

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