Virat Kohli, Kishan hit 50s as India rout England

AHMEDABAD: Virat Kohli led from the front with a quickfire half-century, while Ishan Kishan smashed his way to a fifty on debut as India thrashed England by seven wickets, in the second T20 International, in Ahmedabad on Sunday.

Kishan hit a brilliant 56 from 32 balls, while Kohli roared back to form with a cracking innings of 73 from 49 balls, as India chased down 165, with 13 balls to spare to level the five-match series at 1-1.

Kishan and Kohli rallied India after the early dismissal of KL Rahul (0) in the first over, as they put on 94 runs for the second wicket from nine overs.

Rishabh Pant hit an entertaining 26 from 13 balls as England's bowlers were hit all around the park at the Narendra Modi stadium.

Earlier, Indian bowlers pulled things back brilliantly in the last five overs to restrict England to 164 for six in their 20 overs.

Sent into bat, England suffered an early jolt in the form of Jos Buttler (0), who was adjudged off Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the third ball of the innings.

Jason Roy (46 off 35) and Dawid Malan (24 off 23) shared 63 runs off 47 balls to take the England innings forward. But the dangerous-looking partnership was broken by Yuzvendra Chahal in the ninth over when he trapped Malan LBW in front of the crease as India got the review right on this occasion.

At 130 for four in the 15th over, England looked well in course of reaching a near 200-run target but the Indian bowlers bowled brilliantly to concede just 34 runs in the last five overs.

India, who lost the first match of the series, made a couple of changes, giving Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav their debuts. They replaced Shikhar Dhawan and Axar Patel respectively. Batting mainstay Rohit Sharma was rested again. Agencies

SCOREBOARD

ENGLAND:

Jason Roy c Bhuvneshwar b Washington 46

Jos Buttler lbw b Bhuvneshwar 0

Dawid Malan lbw b Chahal 24

Jonny Bairstow c Suryakumar b Washington 20

*Eoin Morgan c Pant b Thakur 28

Ben Stokes c Pandya b Thakur 24

Sam Curran not out 6

Chris Jordan not out 0

Extras: 17; Total: 164-6 (20)

FOW: Buttler (1-1, 0.3), Malan (64-2, 8.2), Roy (91-3, 11.1), Bairstow (119-4, 13.5), Morgan (142-5, 17.1), Stokes (160-6, 19.4)

Bowling:

B Kumar 4 0 28 1

W Sundar 4 0 29 2

S Thakur 4 0 29 2

H Pandya 4 0 33 0

Y Chahal 4 0 34 1

INDIA:

KL Rahul c Buttler b Curran 0

Ishan Kishan lbw b Rashid 56

*Virat Kohli not out 73

Rishabh Pant c Bairstow b Jordan 26

Shreyas Iyer not out 8

Extras: 3 b:0 lb:1 nb:1 w:1

Total: 166-3 (17.5)

FOW:KL Rahul (0-1, 1), Ishan Kishan (94-2, 10), Rishabh Pant (130-3, 13.4)

Bowling:

Sam Curran 4 1 22 1

Jofra Archer 4 0 24 0

Chris Jordan 2.5 0 38 1

Tom Curran 2 0 26 0

Ben Stokes 1 0 17 0

Adil Rashid 4 0 38 1

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