SOUTHAMPTON: A brilliant century from Jos Buttler and a combined bowling effort helped England beat India by 56 runs in the fifth T20I at The Rose Bowl on Saturday.
With the 56-run win, India remain winless in the five-match series, with the home side winning 4-0 as the opener at Chester-le-Street was washed out.
Batting first in the recently concluded match, a mammoth partnership of 233 runs between Buttler and captain Harry Brooke saw the home team amass a massive total of 257/3 in 20 overs.
However, England had a mixed start to their innings as Prasith Krishna dismissed Phil Salt in the fourth ball of the second over with just 8 runs on the board.
After stumbling early, captain Brook joined Buttler in the middle and the duo turned the game around with a belligerent attack and added 233 runs for the second wicket.
Shivam Dube finally dismissed Buttler for 131 off 64 balls, which included 8 fours and 6 12s, the second-highest partnership for any wicket in a men’s T20I involving full member nations, culminating in the fourth delivery of the last over.
Dubey struck out again as Golden Duck struck out Jacob Bethel.
The England captain returned after a sensational knock of 95 off 45 balls with 12 fours including 8 sixes.
For India, Dubey took two wickets for 22 runs in an over, while Krishna managed to take a scalp for 38 runs in his four overs.
Chasing a tough target of 258, the reigning world champions could only manage 201/8 in 20 overs, despite half-centuries from Ishan Kishan and Tilak Verma, suffering a fourth successive defeat at the hands of England.
Kishan was the top scorer for the visitors with 56 off 35 balls while Verma hit 53 off 25 balls with the help of 4 sixes and 3 fours.
Apart from them, only captain Shreyas Iyer (28), returning opener Sanju Samson (27) and all-rounder Dubey (14) managed to score double figures against a decent England bowling attack.
Sam Curran was England’s best bowler with 3 for 36 in his four overs, Adil Rashid with 2 and Liam Dawson, Josh Tongu and Jofra Archer with a scalp each.