5th T20I: Rohit, Virat, Surya, Hardik destroy England’s bowling attack, India pile on 224 in decider
Rohit #Rohit
Indian batting line-up somehow woke up from the grave and gave a pasting to England’s bowling line-up as they piled on 224 runs in the final T20I and the decider game of the series. The home side made one change as KL Rahul was left out and skipper Virat Kohli promoted himself to the top of the order as they got the pacer T Natarajan in his place in the line-up.
Kohli and Rohit Sharma opening for the first time in T20Is for India together took the attack to the opposition as they came all guns blazing from the outset. Rohit was the aggressor as he took on both the pacers and the spinners. Kohli played the second fiddle and the yin and yang dismantled England’s bowling attack.
The duo stitched a 94-run partnership in just nine overs as India were slowly taking the game away. If not yet, Suryakumar Yadav, who came in at No 3 after Rohit’s dismissal ensured the visitors were certainly out of it. Surya, came smashing and raced to 31 off just 13 balls and even surpassed Kohli, who was at 30.
Surya got out to a fabulous fielding effort from Chris Jordan, but it didn’t have an impact on India’s scoring rate as Hardik Pandya was promoted to No 4 and Kohli was set now. So, both started firing from their ends and England were really on the backfoot.
Kohli brought up another half-century and he was now in his zone. Hardik ended up scoring 39 runs off 17 balls while skipper remained unbeaten on 80 off just 52 balls as India amassed 224 runs in their 20 overs.