Manchester: Jacob Bethell’s unbeaten half-century helped England to a three-match win over India in the second T20I of the five-match series at Old Trafford on Saturday.
Chasing a target of 191, England reached the target with the loss of 6 wickets in 19 overs. Jacob Bethel scored an unbeaten 76 off 46 balls with 5 fours and 5 sixes.
Captain Harry Brooke scored 39 off 15 balls with 4 fours and 3 sixes, while Tom Banton scored a valuable 39 off 32 balls including 6 fours.
For India, Arshdeep Singh picked the bowlers, claiming 3/40 from his four overs. Harshit Rana, Akshar Patel and Varun Chakraborty took one wicket each.
Batting first, India posted 190-7 in the allotted 20 overs thanks to valuable contributions from opener Abhishek Sharma, wicketkeeper-batsman Ishan Kishan, captain Shreyas Iyer and Thilak Verma.
Kishan scored a top score of 49 off 40 balls, narrowly missing out on a half-century after hitting 6 fours. Sharma gave an aggressive start with 43 runs off 24 balls including 8 fours and a six.
Iyer scored a blistering 37 off 22 balls with 3 fours and a six, while Verma remained unbeaten on 24 off 11 balls with a four and 2 sixes.
Debutant Vaibhav Suryavanshi scored 14 runs off 10 balls including 2 sixes. Shivam Dubey scored 5 runs off seven balls while Axar Patel and Harshit Rana were dismissed for 2 and 6 runs respectively.
For England, Sam Curran bowled and claimed 3/33 from his four overs. Jofra Archer, Will Jacks and Liam Dawson took one wicket each.
The third T20I of the series is scheduled to be played on July 7 at Trent Bridge, Nottingham.