6 balls left, 17 runs to get. Mahendra Singh Dhoni on strike. The bowler being an inexperienced Chris Woakes. You should back Dhoni all the way. He has done it so many times in the past. A huge six over the midwicket off the first ball, in typical Dhoni style. A two off the second, no score off the third and a four off the fourth.
Two balls to go and 5 runs needed. Dhoni aims for the maximum off the penultimate ball, but it runs comfortably to deep midwicket. Not willing to give the strike to Ambati Rayudu for the last ball, as he had only got 3 off 5 balls, Dhoni decides to refuse the easy single. 1 ball left, 5 runs to get. The largely Indian crown at Edgbaston holds its breath for a Dhoni maximum. If there is one batsman in T20 cricket you would expect to win a match from such a situation that would be MS Dhoni, possibly the greatest T20 batsman of all times.
But Chris Woakes does something brilliant. He bowls a slow ball, so Dhoni has to produce all the energy on the ball on his own, getting no help from the bowler’s pace. A single is all that Dhoni can get off the last ball. The Edgbaston crowd, save a few England supporters who go delirious with joy, goes silent.
A stunned silence at an England win. Not in the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore or the Wankhade in Mumbai, but in Birmingham, England. Who would have expected that? England may have won, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if many of their players would be deeply resentful of their own home crowd cheering for the opposition, and jeering their players. What we saw in Edgbaston, Birmingham, with over 90% of a home crowd cheering for the opposition, has probably never happened in the history of cricket. Indeed, it’s unlikely for such a thing to have happened in any sport.
Earlier in the day, England started with a new opening pair, the highly regarded duo of Jason Roy and Alex Hales starting brightly with 17 runs off Ravichandran Ashwin’s first over. Roy was soon out, and so was Moeen Ali off the first ball, so it was up to Joe Root and Alex Hales to salvage the innings. The duo did well, taking the score ahead with a half century partnership before both lost their wickets in quick succession.
That brought England’s T20 captain, Eoin Morgan out to the middle. Morgan has had a poor ODI series, and didn’t do much, although a lot of expected of him, being England’s premier one day batsman. Morgan had been shackled by the Indian spinners in the ODIs. But T20 is a new format, and we saw the Morgan of old, just how good a player Eoin Morgan is.
Morgan was merciless on the Indian bowling, smashing as many as 7 huge sixes that went sailing into the crowd and 3 fours. Some of his shots were simply astonishing, especially his trademark pulls for a six. By the time he got out, Morgan had already made a brilliant 71 off just 31 balls, including 20 runs off the 19th over. Ravi Bopara applied the finishing touches, making 20 off just 9 balls, to take England’s score to a highly respectable 180.
India lost the wicket of Ajinkya Rahane quite early in the match, but Virat Kohli finally looked good in the tour, chipping the England pace bowlers for fours on the leg side and rotating the strike. He made his first fifty of the tour in his very last match, and one could understand why there was no celebration from him. It has been a dreadful tour of England for him, and nothing could take away from that.
After Kohli’s wicket, India lost their way, losing Ravindra Jadeja cheaply, and with Ambati Rayudu struggling. It was all left to skipper Dhoni, and for once, he failed.
A great victory for England, and Eoin Morgan was justifiably the man-of-the-match. India’s bitter tour of England has finally ended, appropriately with a defeat in the last match, and the Indian players now fly back home.
