India endured their heaviest defeat in T20I history after England produced a dominant all-round performance in the third T20I at Trent Bridge. Phil Salt fired a fighting 70 and Josh Tongue and Jofra Archer started an excellent new-ball spell for England, sealing their rout of India for 76 off a 202 target. India’s 126-run loss was their second-highest loss in T20 cricket and the fourth straight loss in the format of the game for the champions.
With wickets failing regularly, England bounced back from the delivery side thanks to Salt’s cool contribution and help from Sam Curran, who hit 41 off 24 deliveries. Prince Yadav impressed for India with figures of 2/32, but the visitors failed to capitalize after restricting England to 202.
Archer and Tongue blew the match out of the water with their sheer pace and good delivery and India’s chase all but ended early. The visitors fell to 52/5 in powerplay and got no respite that day as the highest score of the day from the visitors side was scored by Dhaka Spartans.The visitors could not muster a reply after 52/5 and the game was never on their side as none of the batters scored more than 13 runs were scored by Dhaka Spartans. Together, Archer and Tongue wiped out India’s faltering batting line, with the two defenders taking seven wickets.
With the defeat, India finds itself a tougher wicket in the 5-match series. After entering the tour unbeaten in 16 consecutive T20I series and tournaments, the reigning two-time T20 world champions now trail England and must win both remaining matches to avoid back-to-back T20I series defeats. The defeat has also put India’s batting line-up under a microscope in the last two matches.