England 159 for 1 (Brook 79*, Salt 59*) beat India 158 for 7 (Iyer 80*, Archer 2-20, Tongue 2-36) by nine wickets
England have now won 19 out of 22 completed T20Is since Brook took over as captain last year and after a tight win in Manchester on Saturday, they have been utterly dominant in both matches this week. They are a vastly experienced side – five players have 60 or more T20I caps – and have made simple but hugely effective plans to take India down.
The only shame from England’s perspective is that the next T20 World Cup is over two years away. They fell just short when trying to chase 254 against India at the 2026 T20 World Cup in March, and if this series pales in significance compared to a World Cup semi-final, they have at least exacted some kind of revenge.
Brook and Salt’s assault
Salt faced a second successive first-over maiden, though Arshdeep Singh did allow four leg byes when he strayed onto the pads. Arshdeep struck in his second over, Jos Buttler edging behind after launching a straight six, but was scooped for six by Brook and did not return for a third until the game was over as a contest.
It took Salt until his tenth ball to get off the mark but he quickly turned 0 off 9 into 26 off 19, carving both Prince Yadav and then Prasidh Krishna for three fours in an over. Prince rearranged Salt’s stumps with a pinpoint yorker but off a free hit, having overstepped the previous ball, and another Brook lap took England to 62 for 1 after the powerplay.
When Iyer turned to Washington Sundar’s offbreaks, Brook sensed a moment to kill the game and seized it: he went four, six, four, then four in successive balls to take the required rate down to a run-a-ball, and soon reached a 21-ball fifty with a straight launch for six off Axar Patel. Salt reached his own off 34 balls by flicking Prasidh for four, and they never let up thereafter.
England’s short stuff works again
England blew India’s top order away with pace in Nottingham and stuck to a similar formula in Bristol. For the third game in a row, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi struck two early blows but failed to pass 15, and Ishan Kishan followed him in falling while playing a cross-batted shot to a short ball early in his innings.
Neither Abhishek Sharma nor Shivam Dube got going before falling to mis-hits off spin – Dube to another excellent catch at long-on by Tom Banton, who has fielded brilliantly throughout this series – and on a two-paced pitch, both Tilak Varma and Washington Sundar were caught off slower-ball bouncers.
Iyer’s lone hand
Iyer has been his team’s only reliable source of runs in this series, scoring more half-centuries (two) than the rest of India’s batters have managed between them (one). He was in early again, flicking his second ball for four, and played an outrageous upper-cut for six to exploit the shorter straight boundaries when Archer returned for his third over.
He was the only batter to play with any real conviction and took down Adil Rashid in style. He scored 44 of the 49 runs that Rashid conceded, including a three-card trick of six, four, six at the end of the 18th over, Rashid’s last. The four came via a thick outside edge, but the two sixes were the best of Iyer, dancing down the pitch and launching the legspinner back over his head.
It left India 150 for 5, but they managed just four runs off each of the last two overs as Curran and Archer nailed their slower balls and yorkers, with Archer’s side-footed finish running Axar out off the last ball of the innings. Iyer was desperately short of support: he hit four fours and five sixes, but his team-mates managed five fours and two sixes between them.
Matt Roller is a senior correspondent at Cricinfo. @mroller98
