Ravichandran Ashwin heaped praise on England's leg-spinner Adil Rashid after he produced a stunning delivery to dismiss the in-form Tilak Varma during the third T20 International in Rajkot on Tuesday.
Varma had been in phenomenal form in T20 Internationals, having scored 336 runs without being dismissed in his last four innings. He had steered India to a thrilling two wicket victory in the second match in Chennai in a tight run chase, stroking an unbeaten 72 not out from 55 balls.
Once again India looked towards the young left-hander to bail them out of trouble after the top order had crumbled early.
Sanju Samson (3), Abhishek Sharma (24) and Suryakumar Yadav (14) departed inside the Powerplay, leaving the middle order with a steep task in pursuit of 172 for victory.
36-year-old Rashid showed his class with a sensational delivery to get rid of Varma. He got the length delivery to turn sharply into the left-hander, who was beaten on the inside edge as the ball went through the gate between bat and pad to crash into the middle stump.
'Absolute seed. Scrambled seam and serious side spin. Top bowling Adil Rashid,' Ashwin said on X, praising Rashid's magic with the ball.
Rashid stifled the Indian middle overs, drying up the flow of runs with a superb spell of 1/15 in four overs, including 10 dot balls.
'I felt there'd be a little bit of dew. With Hardik-Axar batting and us needing 55 off 24, still felt we had the game in our hands. The credit to Adil Rashid. We wanted to rotate the strike, but he didn't let us, that's why he is a world-class bowler,' admitted India captain Suryakumar.
Rashid had also been outstanding with the ball in the second match in Chennai, with figures of 1/14 in four overs, which included 13 dot balls.
Overall, the England spinner boasts of an impressive record in T20 Internationals, with 129 wickets in 122 matches, at an economy rate of 7.30.
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