Harry Brook’s half-century in vain as England lose T20 series in India

Not that Psychic Ravi will care about that.

The former India all-rounder, who conducted the pre-match toss and then spent the day on commentary, watched the hosts secure an unassailable 3-1 lead going into Sunday’s final game in Mumbai.

For England, it was back to the drawing board – assuming that they can borrow it briefly from the women – as they look to regroup ahead of that fixture and then the three-match one-day series that starts on Thursday.

Defeat by 15 runs was a bitter pill not least because – as with so many fixtures in this format – the result could easily have gone the other way, with a little more nous and a little less panic.

Ultimately, England did not bat well enough in pursuit of 182 to win, throwing wickets away at key intervals as commonsense deserted them.

True, eyebrows will be raised that three of the wickets were taken by Harshit Rana, a most unlike “like-for-like” concussion substitute for Shivam Dube, who joint top-scored with 53 in India’s 181-9 and was hit on the helmet towards the end of his innings.

But England must look inwardly rather than as to why the umpires allowed a big-hitting all-rounder to be replaced by a debutant seamer, one who played, under the circumstances, a perhaps inevitably important role.

After Jos Buttler won his first toss of the series, England began the game well.

Saqib Mahmood, on his first appearance of the tour, took three wickets in the second over – a triple-wicket maiden – after England chose to rest Mark Wood, with Jacob Bethell the other change in place of Jamie Smith (calf).

Mahmood took wickets with his first two balls, Sanju Samson pulling to backward square-leg and Tilak Varma slicing to third man as he charged down the pitch as if the crease was mined.

When Suryakumar Yadav, the India captain, picked out mid-wicket from the last ball of the over, England were cock-a-hoop and the crowd as silent as falling snow, unable to comprehend their senses.

India’s response was “attack, attack, attack”.

Abhishek Sharma smote a brace of fours through the covers in Mahmood’s second over, and, in his third, Rinku Singh launched a leg-side six with a lovely wristy flick.

Still Mahmood and England would have been more than pleased at the end of the powerplay, which India finished on 47-3, Mahmood’s figures: 3-1-19-3.

Adil Rashid, the Yorkshire leg-spinner, had a fine game in Rajkot on Tuesday, conceding just 15 runs from his four overs and no boundaries, and he struck with his second ball this time, Abhishek slog-sweeping to deep mid-wicket to end a threatening stand.

From Rashid’s next delivery, Buttler dropped Dube, the new batsman, as he flew to his left at slip, a tough chance and a miss that proved costly.

After Rinku Singh charged Brydon Carse and sliced to third man in a near replica of Varma’s dismissal, Dube and Hardik Pandya added 87 for the sixth wicket in 45 balls, changing the complexion.

Hardik hammered two sixes in Mahmood’s final over, which went for 16, and Dube was particularly effective against Rashid, taking him for 25 from 11 balls faced.

It needed a good catch by Buttler to break the stand, Hardik skying Jamie Overton into the covers to depart for 53 from 30 balls with four fours and four sixes.

Overton bowled an excellent final over of the innings, which went for three runs and included three wickets, two of them run-outs, the last of which saw Dube perish to a direct hit by Buttler from long-on, Dube’s 34-ball innings containing seven fours and two sixes.

England’s chase was given a flying start by Phil Salt and Ben Duckett, who shared 62 before Duckett fell to the last ball of the powerplay.

The left-hander lofted leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi to cover, having hit 39 from 19 balls with seven fours and a six, then Salt and Buttler followed in quick succession as the tourists slipped to 67-3.

Salt tried to make room to strike Axar Patel through the offside and was bowled, letting out a groan of frustration; then Buttler cut Bishnoi to short-third, where Harshit took the catch.

Harshit then captured a wicket with his second ball when Liam Livingstone was caught behind attempting to run the ball down through third-man.

Harry Brook played some lovely shots and smote Harshit for successive sixes en route to a 25-ball fifty, but his 26th delivery did for him when he played an ill-judged scoop to Varun Chakravarthy and was caught at short fine-leg, a flawed piece of funkiness that summed up the night.

Two balls later, Brydon Carse skied Chakravarthy horribly to deep mid-wicket and then Harshit took his second when Bethell lazily picked out long-on.

It was poor batting by England, who then lost Jofra Archer when he played-on to Bishnoi, the most successful bowler with 3-28.

Overton cracked 19 from 15, bizarrely turning down runs at the finish despite having the capable Rashid for company, and Saqib was last out when he pulled Arshdeep Singh into the leg-side.

Shastri’s prediction had become not a prediction at all but rather a statement of the bleeding obvious.

It was 3-1 India, and it’s all over now.