A clinical India outplayed England to win the second T20 International by seven wickets on Sunday and level the five-match series 1-1.
While debutant Ishan Kishan and Virat Kohli walked away with all the plaudits after their cracking fifties, it is quite clear that the victory would not have been possible without the bowlers who restrictED the power-packed England batting line-up to 164/6 in their 20 overs.
England were never able to break free after they were put in to bat.
The dangerous Jos Buttler was dismissed for a duck in the first over by Bhuvneshwar Kumar, while Jason Roy kept swinging hard but only scored 46 from 35 balls.
Despite not getting boundaries regularly in the middle overs, England were nicely set up for the final flourish at the end, having reached 129/4 in 15 overs with the experienced duo of Eoin Morgan and Ben Stokes in the middle.
But India's pacers -- Bhuvneshwar, Hardik Pandya and Shardul Thakur --choked the visitors at the end as just two boundaries were hit in the last five overs.
Bhuvneshwar brought all his experience into play as he conceded just seven runs in the 16th over, while Pandya mixed his pace brilliantly to give away six runs in the next.
The pressure paid off as Morgan perished in search of quick runs. He was totally foxed by the change of pace from Thakur and miscued a simple catch to wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant after scoring 28.
Struggling Stokes finally got a boundary when he hit Bhuvneshwar straight down the ground but, again, only nine runs came from the 19th over.
Stokes was finding it difficult to pick the change of pace from Thakur and was caught at long-on trying to loft it down the ground after scoring 24 as Thakur gave away just six runs in the final over.
Bhuvneshwar registered impressive figures of 1/28 in four overs, while Thakur kept things tight at the end with his clever change of pace to finish with 2/29 in four overs.
England scored just 35 from the last five overs and finished on a below-par total on a good batting wicket before India cruised to victory, with 13 balls to spare.
