365 Sporting Days

Lots of photos for this one, especially of Rohit Sharma

The mini road trip to watch England play India took my friend Monica and I to the County Ground at Bristol for the 3rd and decisive T20 between the 2 teams.  We chose to use the Park and Ride which worked really well going but was something of a disaster on the way back!

The queue in blazing sun to get into the ground was one of the longest I’ve encountered and it set the tone for being boiled that day, how I didn’t melt I do not know!

Virat Kohli won the toss and put England in to bat, there was no Kuldeep to cause English nightmares.

Jos Buttler and Jason Roy started well getting to 94 before Buttler was bowled by Siddarth Kaul, he’d made 34 from 21 balls.  We saw a dropped catch, not long after, from Kaul, I usually miss catches as I’m too busy watching them, in this case I got the photos, he dropped the ball.

Dhoni was given a much easier chance a few balls later by Jason Roy, a chance he wasn’t going to drop and Roy, who’d played an explosive innings was out for 67, he’d faced 31 balls and hit Four 4’s and seven 6’s, entertaining to say the least!  England were 103 for 2 in the 10th over.

With a long line of hard hitters to come that score seemed to be a good one, then along came All Rounder Hardik Pandya.  He and Dhoni combined in the 14th over to despatch Eoin Morgan for 6 and Alex Hales for 30 and England were 140 for 4.  Chahal had dropped Morgan, hurting himself in the process, it was good to see him back on the field later.

Pandya matched his 2 overs in the 14th by taking 2 in the 18th, Ben Stokes was the first to go, he didn’t quite connect with the ball and was caught out on the boundary by Virat Kohli.

Wickets so often seem to fall in clusters and Bairstow was caught by Dhoni 2 balls later, England were 177 for 5.

Pandya took 4 wickets for 38 runs, a match changing bowling spell.  England scored 21 runs in the remaining 2 overs India took 3 wickets and had a target of 199 to win.

I don’t have too much to say about the India innings but I do have lots of photos to share. Rohit Sharma smashed it basically.  Well, he smashed the ball to all corners of the ground, with ease.  He carried his bat and made a century from 56 balls, hitting eleven 4’s and five 6’s.  Although he was very clearly beating my team he was a joy to behold.

Dhawan and KL Rahul were both out for not very many, 5 for Dhawan and 19 for Rahul, who was out to a wonder catch from Chris Jordan, I just about managed to catch him mid flight.

Virat Kolli made 33 before being out caught and bowled Jordan.  Pandya kept Rohit company and added a vital 33 runs to help see India to an easy victory with 8 balls to spare.  With that win India claimed the T20 series.