India’s fast bowler Shardul Thakur had to bowl the difficult last over in the fourth T20I against England at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Thursday.
Thakur had 21 runs in the bank as England needed 23 to win. The fast bowler was put under pressure after his second and third ball was smashed for a four and a six respectively by Jofra Archer.
The pressure was palpable as Thakur bowled two more wide balls after that. It was seen that Thakur was constantly advised by vice-captain Rohit Sharma, who was leading the team in the absence of Virat Kohli and all-rounder Hardik Pandya. The fast bowler from Mumbai revealed that Rohit advised him to back his own instincts on the final three balls of the over.
Thakur then conceded a single on his fourth ball and dismissed Chris Jordan on the penultimate ball. The 29-year old then bowled a dot ball and took India to eight runs victory.
“Rohit said just back your instincts, think, take your time. He mentioned that one side of the ground is bigger and the other is short so plan your bowling and execute your balls [accordingly],” said Shardul Thakur in the post-match presentation.
Meanwhile, Thakur was able to change the match on its head as he took two wickets in consecutive balls. Thakur first dismissed a dangerous looking Ben Stokes, who was going all guns blazing after scoring 46 runs from 23 balls. Subsequently, Thakur also dismissed England’s captain Eoin Morgan. Both the dismissals came when Thakur bowled a slower ball on the fifth-sixth stump line.
Thakur revealed that the dew made it difficult to grib the ball but he enjoyed the challenge to bowl the last over.
“There wasn’t much dew in the last three games but in this game, there was dew. So definitely a tough last over. They [England batsmen] were swinging hard and they were always going to go for runs. It was important to bowl those 1 or 2 dot balls and the game was sealed,” said Shardul Thakur.
Thakur returned with figures of 3-42 in his four overs and he made good use of the slower ball. Furthermore, Shardul provided the finishing touches as he smashed 10 runs from four balls to take India to a par score of 185 runs.
The series is now tied at 2-2 and the decider of the series will be played on Saturday.
