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Ben Duckett and Adil Rashid's helped a 26-run win in the third T20 international against India in Rajkot

England stays in the series with a strong performance in bowling

Varun Chakravarthy takes five-fer in losing cause after Ben Duckett fifty helps set up winning total.

After Ben Duckett’s second half-century in T20I, England registered a 26-run victory against India, in Rajkot on 28 Jan. With this win, England made the series ratio 2-1 in this five-match series. 
The visitors were assured that their counter-attack would help them to outwit India. They played hard and by the end of the ninth over everything looks good. And in the middle overs, Jos Buttler and Ben Duckett took the responsibility and the score was 83 by 1 on the board. Then, a familiar foe appeared again - Varun Chakravarthy. This time, he bowled the ball lower than Buttler expected, and it ended up being taken by the wicketkeeper.
In the middle overs, when Buttler and Ben Duckett were handling the situation everything seemed pleasant. In just seven balls during the fourth and fifth overs, bowled by Hardik Pandya and Washington Sundar, Duckett hit five fours and a six. Buttler didn't speed up his scoring in the same way, but after he reverse-swept Bishnoi for a four in the seventh over, he sent a high delivery from the leg spinner over the long-on boundary.
The English batters had a tough time against Chakravarthy. They found it hard to handle his clever spin, and in the 14th over, Jamie Smith and Jamie Overton got out on consecutive balls. In the last over of his spell, Brydon Carse caught out at deep square leg, and Jofra Archer was bowled out by a googly. After Buttler left, England quickly fell to 127 for 8, with Chakravarthy taking five wickets in just four overs.
Other spinners, Axar Patel and Ravi Bishnoi, also made things difficult for the English team, completely disrupting their flow. Duckett hit a mistimed shot off Axar that was caught at mid-on, and Harry Brook accidentally knocked the ball onto his own stumps while trying to sweep Bishnoi. Liam Livingstone brought some excitement with a quick 43 runs off 24 balls, hitting Bishnoi for three sixes in the 17th over before getting out in the next over. England's last two batters, Adil Rashid and Mark Wood, held on in the closing moments, finishing with a total of 171 for 8, making the game more competitive and ultimately winning it.
The match, which initially seemed to favour India because of Abhishek Sharma's strong start, got more thrilling when Suryakumar Yadav hit a top edge that was caught by Phil Salt in the last over of the powerplay, leaving India at 48 for 3. By that point, Yadav's aggressive batting and Sharma's brief innings had ended with their dismissals, along with Sanju Samson's, pushing India into a tough rebuilding phase.
Hardik Pandya and Tilak Varma kept their cool in the situation, but the Indian batsmen faced a challenge against Adil Rashid's spin bowling. The pitch offered some turn, and Rashid effectively varied his pace. Varma fell victim to a sharply turning leg break that sneaked past his inside edge and bowled him out in the ninth over.
Washington Sundar also struggled to handle the spin, trying to cope with Rashid's loop, dip, and slower pace. His quick 6 runs off 14 balls during the middle overs shifted control to England. Meanwhile, Rashid completed a fantastic spell, giving away only 15 runs.
Hardik Pandya struggled to hit big shots as the English pacers cleverly mixed up their pace, causing him to mistime shots and mainly score singles. Axar Patel faced similar difficulties, scoring only 16 runs from 15 balls before being caught out by Jofra Archer.
As the run rate increased beyond India's reach, wickets started falling quickly—a procession. Shami was caught at deep long-on, and Dhruv Jurel scooped a catch to the wicketkeeper. Bishnoi hit a boundary with the last ball, but it wasn't enough to change the outcome.

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