NEW DELHI: Tilak Varma‘s exceptional half-century helped India recover from a top-order collapse against England’s pacers to secure a thrilling two-wicket victory in the second T20I on Saturday, giving them a 2-0 lead in the five-match series.
Tilak remained unbeaten on 72 off 55 balls, featuring four boundaries and five sixes. He skillfully utilized the sheer pace of the English bowlers to accumulate runs and singlehandedly guide India to the target.
With six runs needed off the final six balls and tailender Ravi Bishnoi at the other end, Tilak showcased his composure. He flicked Jamie Overton towards backward square leg for two runs and followed it with a crisp boundary through the deep extra-cover region to seal the win for India.
Awarded Player of the Match for his outstanding innings, Tilak admitted to feeling significant pressure during the tense chase.
“Actually, I was under a lot of pressure,” Tilak told Star Sports after the match.
“Arshdeep was saying, ‘I will hit it. I will hit it. I have to give a single.’ So, I thought, on this wicket, Archer can’t get you out. On this wicket, Adil Rashid will because his ball was moving a lot. I knew that Arshdeep would try to hit the spinner. I said, ‘No, bhai.’ If Arshdeep wanted to play, he should play Archer. He said he wouldn’t play Archer, so I said, ‘Okay, I will play.’ I told him to be ready with his defence. ‘Whether you get a bouncer or not, you just have to stop him. If you see him behind, bend down.’ So, I don’t know what he did. He said, ‘If I get a bouncer, I will hit him from above.’,” Tilak said.
“He said a lot of things. But whatever happened, I am happy that he got a boundary off Archer. And the best thing to see was Ravi Bishnoi’s batting. He has done a very good job in nets. He and Varun Chakravarthy did a very good job in batting. I had a lot of faith in both of them that they could play,” he said.
“I told them, ‘If you want to hit, you have to hit in the gaps. If you get a single, there is no problem. If you want to bend down on the bouncer, you have to play like Test cricket.’ So, actually, Ravi Bishnoi played well. If you see, he hit a flick from the front. A lot of credit goes to him too. Actually, those two fours were very important,” the left-hander said.
The third T20I is scheduled for Tuesday at the Niranjan Shah Stadium in Rajkot, where India will look to clinch the series.