“Jofra Archer keeps pressure on, forces batsmen to attack other bowlers” - Mark Wood
England fast bowler Mark Wood stated that his bowling partner Jofra Archer always keeps the pressure on opposition batsmen. According to Wood, this pressure forces the batters to go after other bowlers, which can often end up in their dismissal.
Mark Wood got the wickets of KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, and Shreyas Iyer in the third T20I, which England won by eight wickets. While Archer went wicketless, he did not allow India to get away in the powerplay overs. Stressing the same, Mark Wood said:
“Jofra starts a lot of the times, because he keeps the pressure on, it forces the teams to take risks against the other bowlers. He keeps it tight, when I started well and I got the wicket, they had a new batsman and we could get a few dot balls in to build pressure. It is just about bowling in tandem and keeping the pressure on for each other. Just trying to make sure that we did not give anything loose.”
The England pacers made excellent use of the short ball as four Indian batsmen perished to the rising delivery. While Rohit and Shreyas Iyer fell to Mark Wood, Chris Jordan got the better of Ishan Kishan and Hardik Pandya with balls that were dug in short.
Excellent bowling by England’s pacers on a surface that had more bounce than usual on offer saw India being held to 156 for 6. Jos Buttler’s career-best 83 not out from 52 deliveries then saw England romp home in the chase.
Virat Kohli just played good shots: Mark Wood
While England's bowlers maintained a tight leash on India's batsmen, for the most part, they couldn’t keep Virat Kohli quiet. The Indian captain blazed his way to an unbeaten 77 from 46 balls, smashing eight fours and four sixes. Mark Wood himself went for 17 in his last over.
According to Wood, the bowlers got their execution slightly wrong, and Kohli took advantage of the same. The 31-year-old added:
“We have a plan as a group. Chris Jordon is an experienced bowler. We decide on the ball we are going to bowl and then you try to execute that. The plan was good but the execution was wrong. On a couple of balls, I felt I executed what I wanted to bowl, but Kohli just played good shots and good players are allowed to do that. The first six he hit off me, was a hell of a shot.”
“If you allow good players to get in, he got in and he took his time and he caught up with it in the end. He is a fantastic player, but we were pleased with the score we kept them too. I will take the battering in the end for the early wickets which I got,” Mark Wood further said.
England will have a chance to clinch the five-match series when they take on India in the fourth T20I on Thursday.