Jasprit Bumrah's final-over heroics, claiming two wickets and conceding just two runs, helped India edge out England by five runs in the second Twenty20 International played in Nagpur on Sunday.
Joe Root and Jos Buttler had taken their side within eight runs of sealing the T20 series, with an over to spare. Virat Kohli, India's captain, turned to Bumrah - known for his Yorkers - to bowl the last over of the match.
The move paid off as the lanky seamer struck Root on the pad from his first ball of the over. Root had anchored the chase but had struggled for fluency and he tried to pull Bumrah across the line, only to be trapped lbw. Root had reason to feel aggrieved with the decision as his miscued shot had found a fine inside-edge.
Moeen Ali managed a single from the second ball, but Bumrah's next two balls sealed the match, as he first produced a slow off-cutter that beat Buttler and then uprooted his leg stump. He conceded just a single from the last two balls of the match.
The Nagpur surface had troubled batsmen through the day, with India - batting first - managing just 144 runs in their innings. KL Rahul was the only India batsmen that found runs, clobbering 71 from 47 balls. His effort and a cameo 26-ball 30 from Manish Pandey down the order powered India's innings.
England's top six batsmen got starts but failed to find fluency. Ben Stokes and Buttler guided their side to within 32 runs from the total, with four overs to spare. Ashish Nehra broke the stand and dismissed the dangerous Stokes. Nehra finished with figures of 3 for 28, while Bumrah finished with match-winning figures of 2 for 20 in his four overs. He conceded just four runs in his last two overs.
Bumrah, the Player of the match, said that his past experience guided him in the last over. "It's always tough to bowl in the death. I tried to remember the past where I've done well in such situations. We saw the first innings, it was on the slower side. Back-of-length deliveries and slower deliveries were difficult to get away, so that is what I wanted to bowl," Bumrah said.
Kohli lauded his bowlers for producing an impressive display despite dew. "The way spinners bowled in the middle, and then the effort of Nehra and Bumrah with dew was outstanding. Nehra knew exactly what he wanted to do, Bumrah was asking me every ball what I thought he should do. I told him 'just bowl what comes naturally to you.'" Kohli said.