Ben Duckett and Liam Livingstone star with the bat as England dig deep to seal 26-run win against India to halve the deficit to 2-1 in T20I series

England came back from the brink to keep the Twenty20 series against India alive after sticking to their Bazball principles in the face of adversity.

A 26-run victory that halved the deficit to 2-1 with two to play once again came against the head, after Jos Buttler lost a third toss in a row, but on a pitch that played much worse than it looked, the tourists scrambled to a defendable score and their pace-dominant attack did the rest.

When England slipped to 127 for eight – a collapse inspired by leg-spinning nemesis Varun Chakravarthy’s five for 24 – it appeared they were careering towards defeat in the manner they did in their first match in Kolkata, but Liam Livingstone ran towards the danger instead of heading for the safety route, striking Ravi Bishnoi for three sixes in four balls.

It was a decision that altered the momentum and even though he departed for a 24-ball 43 soon afterwards, an unbroken last-wicket stand of 24 between Adil Rashid and Mark Wood took them to their highest score of the series.

‘I just love the way the guy’s played. We’re absolutely moving in the right direction. We’re really happy with the style we’re trying to play and continuing to be aggressive and taking our shots on with the bat,’ Buttler said.

With 171 for nine on the board, England still required early wickets and backed up by excellent catching their pace bowlers took three in the power play – Archer’s over-shoulder grab to dismiss Abhishek Sharma the pick.

Jamie Overton took three wickets as the tourists successfully defended their score of 171

Liam Livingstone smashed 43 off 24 including five sixes to rescue England’s first innings

England had to contend again with the leg-spin of Varun Chakravarthy, who took five for 24

Those early strikes allowed the excellent Rashid to apply the mid-innings clamp so efficiently that India’s batters did not hit a boundary between the seventh and 15th overs.

By the time that barren sequence was broken, the world champions needed more than 12 an over and were destined for just a fifth defeat in 40 T20 matches.

‘He’s the most important player in our team, we are very fortunate to have him and he’s getting better and better,’ Buttler said of Rashid, who returned figures of 4-0-15-1, the most economical of the match.

Jofra Archer had leaked the worst figures of his T20 international career in Chennai, but England made a significant tactical tweak, posting a short third man and a short fine leg in addition to a slip, stopping India’s top order turning his pace against him.

Forced to hit him and his fellow England quicks down the ground on a sticky surface, India’s stroke-players were exposed and fell to a succession of mishits – Archer, Brydon Carse and Jamie Overton sharing seven wickets.

In contrast, Ben Duckett showed extraordinary fluency, striking six boundaries in seven deliveries during a 26-ball half century completed moments after Buttler was shown to have got a feather edge on a reverse sweep at Chakravarthy on review.

From a position of 83 for one, England imploded: Duckett holed out to slow left-armer Axar Patel in the next over, the second of seven wickets to fall for 44 runs during the latest spin-only diet fed to them by their hosts – this time a bank of 13 straight overs.

Since returning from three years in the international wilderness last October, Chakravarthy has proved the proverbial comeback king.

Ben Duckett had earlier top-scored with 51 from 28 deliveries with seven fours and two sixes

Jos Buttler could contribute only 24 from 22 before becoming Chakravarthy’s first victim

Mohammad Shami won his first cap since the 2023 One-Day World Cup after injury issues

The scourge of England in this series took his overall tally to 27 wickets in 10 appearances with his latest escapades, duping opponents with the slightest deviations rather than huge turners in claiming his second-best figures in an Indian shirt.

Although they benefitted from the absence of new-ball master Arshdeep Singh – the most prolific India bowler in Twenty20 international history rested to allow a first cap for injury-plagued veteran Mohammad Shami since 2023’s one-day World Cup here – they can ill afford repeats of the spell of four for five in 10 balls leg-spinner Chakravarthy weaved if they are to build on this victory.

It may have come at a cost too after Jamie Smith, who passed a late fitness test to keep wicket despite a calf twinge, lasted only four overs of India’s chase.

Phil Salt took the gloves and immediately kept his composure to haul in a skier from India captain Suryakumar Yadav, but with Smith viewed as a crucial component of an England team seeking to win a fits Champions Trophy next month, it is hoped the one piece of negative news on a positive evening does not take a turn for the worse.

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