3rd T20I: England beat India by 8 wickets, take 2-1 series lead

Ahmedabad: Riding on Jos Buttler's career-best knock (83* of 52 balls) England thrashed India by 8 wickets in the 3rd T20I, to take a 2-1 lead in the 5-match series, here on Tuesday

Kohli struck an unbeaten 77 off 46 balls to rescue India from a top-order collapse and help them post a competitive total of 156-6 in 20 overs after being invited to bat first.In reply, England overhauled the target with 8 wickets in hand and 10 balls to spare.

Chasing a target of 157 runs for victory, England began cautiously and lost Jason Roy early after the opener played a reverse-sweep against Yuzvendra Chahal.However, it didn't matter because Buttler decided to don the aggressor's hat in this chase as he launched an attack on Yuzvendra Chahal right from the first ball. Buttler smashed a couple of sixes and raced to a 26-ball fifty with his sustained aggression.Dawid Malan (18) also got early, but a 77-run stand for the 3rd wicket between Buttler and Jonny Bairstow (40 not out off 25) sealed the deal for England.

Yuzvendra Chahal and Washington Sundar picked one wicket each for India.Earlier put in to bat, India got off to a horror start as Wood breached KL Rahul's defence with an express delivery in the third over, dismissing the opener for his second successive duck in the series.

Rohit Sharma did not trouble the scorers much as he scored just 15 and got out to Wood. Ishan Kishan, who opened the batting on his T20I debut on Sunday and hit a match-winning 56, was dropped to No 3 and the move backfired as he was out for 5.

India were 24-3 after the six powerplay overs and 55-3 at the halfway stage of their innings. Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer's dismissals in quick succession meant India were down to 86 for 5 by the 15th over.

From there on, Kohli did the counter-attack, smashed four sixes and eight boundaries as India scored 56 runs off the last four overs to 156-6 in 20 overs.For England, Mark Wood (3/31) took three wickets to emerge as the most successful bowler, while Chris Jordon (1/35) claimed one.(UNI)