Birmingham: India's long tour of England ended on a heartbreaking note as England held their nerves to pull off a thrilling three run victory in the only T20 International here today.
Chasing a competitive 181 for seven, India needed 17 runs in the final over of the match but captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni could not steer the team home in a contest that went down to the wire at Edgbaston. India ended at 177 for five after England posted 180 for seven, thank to captain Eoin Morgan's 71 runs off 31 balls.
A positive for India was Virat Kohli (66 off 44) who struck his first fifty of the two-month long England tour on the final match of the series.
India made a poor start as they lost Ajinkya Rahane (8) in the second over. The batsman was bowled round his legs by Moeen Ali (1-31), trying to replicate his shot for six earlier in the over. It brought Kohli to the crease and along with Shikhar Dhawan (33), he put on 79 runs for the second wicket. The runs came off just 53 balls at 8.94 runs per over as the power-play brought 53 runs for the loss of a solitary wicket.
They had raised India's 50-run mark off the last ball of the sixth over itself and brought forth their 50-run partnership in the very next over, never easing off their attacking instinct. In fact their stand was the highest second wicket partnership for India against England in all the T20Is contested between the two teams so far.
At the half-way stage then, India were placed at 89/1 and would have liked things to continue as such. But Dhawan went for a wild swing off Chris Woakes (1-43) and was bowled. Kohli though carried on and in the 13th over then, got some relief after a horrid experience on this tour, reaching his half-century in 34 balls. He hit six fours and a six doing so, and would have liked to see his team home but couldn't do so.
