England and India met in the second T20I of the three-match series at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff. India led the series 1-0 after winning the first T20I at Manchester.
Eoin Morgan of England won the toss and chose to chase. England made one change as they left out Moeen Ali and gave a T20I debut to fast bowler Jake Ball. India went in unchanged. Unlike the Manchester pitch, here the 22 yards had much grass in comparison to the first T20I and England bowlers took full advantage of it.
David Willey troubled Rohit Sharma with the movement and this caused Rohit (6) to get out to a bad pull shot off Jake Ball, giving him his first T20I wicket in his first over ever. Shikhar Dhawan scored 10 but ran himself out in comical fashion and last game’s centurion KL Rahul thought that he was still batting at Manchester when he went for a heave and was bowled by Plunkett.
Suresh Raina (27 in 20 balls) and Virat Kohli tried to rebuild the innings with a partnership of 57 runs before Rashid had Raina stumped for the first time in T20 cricket. MS Dhoni walked in with India struggling at 79/4 in the 13th over.
Virat Kohli played a captain’s knock of 47 off 38 balls with 1 four and 2 sixes; but Willey had him caught by Root, leaving India 111/5 in the 18th over. MS Dhoni (32* in 24 balls) and Hardik Pandya hit some lusty blows, in the end, to take India to a competitive looking 148/5
BRIEF SCORES:
INDIA 148/5 (V Kohli 47, MS DHONI 32*; L PLUNKETT 1/17)
