Adil Rashid’s miserly leg-spin bowling stopped the Indian juggernaut in the five -match T20I series against England. India were leading the series 2-0 going into the third T20I at Rajkot on January 28 (Tuesday), but England bowlers first added some crucial lower-order runs and then didn’t allow the Indian players to open up their arms on a sticky surface.
Rashid was at the forefront of that effort, as he, one, didn’t allow the Indian batters to rotate the strike by keeping it tight despite spinning the ball, and two, dismissed Tilak Varma by an absolute ripper, who had been India’s talisman in the chase last game.
“Credit to Adil Rashid, we wanted to rotate strike, but he didn't let us. That’s why he’s a world-class bowler,” Indian skipper Suryakumar Yadav said in the post-match presentation.
Rashid, meanwhile, was happy that he was able to bowl to his strengths and the ball spun for him.
“We bowled exceptionally well as a unit. [On Tilak’s dismissal] That ball spun, gripped and spun through the gate,” Rashid said in the post-match presentation.
“As you play more, get more experience, you start developing certain things. My strength is to mix things up, the last couple of games have gone my way. It looked fairly slow, low when we were batting. Had to adjust as a bowling unit to see if pace on or pace off worked. Got the result.”
England skipper Jos Buttler also heaped praise on his leg spinner and mentioned how his and Mark Wood's addition of 20 runs with the bat really helped England.
“He’s the most important player in our team,” Buttler said.
“He has so many variations, so many different styles of bowling. We are fortunate to have him in our team. I loved the way we kept pushing [while batting] and kept taking the game on. Credit to Rashid and Wood; they had a crucial partnership in the end. That was the difference.”
England defeated India by 26 runs in the end. The fourth T20I will be played at the MCA ground in Pune on January 31.