Cardiff, July 6:
The seasoned Mahendra Singh Dhoni clobbered 22 runs in the final over and lifted India from a precarious 22 for three to 148 for five in testing conditions in the second T20 International against England here today.
Skipper Virat Kohli top-scored with 47 against a much-improved England bowling, but it was Dhoni’s effort that gave India’s total a semblance respectability.
Dhoni remained unbeaten on 32 off 24 balls with the help of five boundaries.
Sent into bat after the coin landed in favour of Eoin Morgan, India were off to an inauspicious start, losing the opening duo of Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan and last game’s centurion KL Rahul, with just 22 runs on the board.
The visitors often struggled to cope with the bounce the Sophia Gardens surface offered to the English bowlers.
However, Kohli stood firm amid the ruins and found an able ally in Suresh Raina (27), with whom the captain added 57 runs for the fourth wicket.
Coming into the game on the back of a convincing eight-wicket victory in the opening game of the three-match series, visiting India were in for a few shocks early on as Jake Ball, playing in place of Moeen Ali, seemed to justify the selection by having Sharma caught behind in the second over.
Meanwhile, The Indian team’s senior most player Mahendra Singh Dhoni today reached the coveted milestone of playing 500 international matches during the second T20 International against England, days ahead of his 37th birthday.
In doing so, Dhoni became the third Indian after Sachin Tendulkar (664) and Rahul Dravid (509) to breach the 500 match barrier in international cricket.
Today’s T20 International was Dhoni’s 92nd in the shortest format.
This apart, the former India captain has played 90 Test matches and 318 One Day Internationals.
In 90 Tests, he had scored 4876 runs with six hundreds and 33 half centuries before calling it a day. (PTI)
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