Who Said What: World reacts as India win series 2-1
Yuzvendra Chahal's career-best T20 figures and fifties from Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni helped India seal a 2-1 series win over England. Despite losing the toss and being asked to bat, India came out on top as they completed a 75-run victory over England.
On the back of fifties from Raina, Dhoni's maiden T20I fifty and Yuvraj Singh’s 10-ball 27, India posted 202/6. In response, England looked set to scale the target on the back of forties from Eoin Morgan and Joe Root, but England lost eight wickets for eight runs and Chahal finished with figures of 6/25 to bowl England for 127 to complete a 75-run victory.
For his six-fer in this match and eight wickets in the three-match T20I series, Chahal was the Man of the Match and Man of the Series.
Yuzvendra Chahal
I felt nice playing my first match at Bengaluru for India. I have bowled in the poweplay in the IPL and Virat has the confidence in me to give me the ball. I plan according to how the batsman plays. Even Dhoni used to tell me what the batsman is going to play. Mishy bowled well in the last match as well, looking at him I get the confidence to toss the ball up.
Here are the reactions from the cricket fraternity:
Virender Sehwag:
Congratulations India.
— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) February 1, 2017
Test, One Day, T-20 sab me England ko Dho daala.
Bharat Mata Ki Jai.
Sachin Tendulkar:
Superb performance by team India, Chahal ne to kamal kar diya! @yuzi_chahal #INDvENG
— sachin tendulkar (@sachin_rt) February 1, 2017
Harbhajan Singh:
Outstanding bowling @yuzi_chahal so proud of you.. 6/25 simply mind blowing..keep it going.. God bless you @BCCI Ind vs Eng
— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) February 1, 2017
Way to go team India!! What a win! Aced all three formats of the game. #IndvEng
— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) February 1, 2017
Mark Butcher:
On the bright side, Yuzi Chahal is old school - loves the game, loves a laugh (may enjoy a beverage) and is 8 stone wet through. Top lad!
— mark butcher (@markbutcher72) February 1, 2017
VVS Laxman:
Congrats Team India on winning the seriesGd 2 see lot of players contributing in this winSpecial performance by @yuzi_chahal #IndvsEng
— VVS Laxman (@VVSLaxman281) February 1, 2017
Fantastic to see @imVkohli give credit to the seniors @msdhoni , @YUVSTRONG12 & Nehra ji True sign of a v.good leaderWell done chikoo
— VVS Laxman (@VVSLaxman281) February 1, 2017
Irfan Pathan:
20 overs ki match mein 5 wickets lene ki pehal kar di hai Chahal ne. well done team India on the series win @BCCI #IndvEng
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) February 1, 2017
Anjum Chopra:
A nice wrap of the series. Well done team India @BCCI. #INDvENG
— Anjum Chopra (@chopraanjum) February 1, 2017
Here’s what the players had to say after the match.
Amit Mishra
The plan was to spin the ball and pile the pressure on. The plan worked and Chahal took wickets from the other end. Yesterday, while bowling in nets, I had a discussion with Chahal where to bowl so that we can restrict the runs. My knee got stuck there, but I was able to save the boundary (when asked about the tumbling stop). The guys were pulling my leg saying my fitness has improved. I tried all my variations. Managed to build pressure and happy that it worked.'
Yuvraj Singh
We (Yuvi and Dhoni) always have a good understanding. He can play the big shots while he is set. I took some time before going on. Bangalore has always been a batting paradise. Very important to assess the pitch. It had a bit of drift and there was a bit of spin. We put up a good score and bowled very well. In Bangalore, 200 is the par score. We see big chases and huge sixes here. The game changes very quickly in T20s. It was a great bowling performance from the bowlers. JB (Jasprit Bumrah) brought us back in the previous game as well. Mishra set the tone with the ball today. He bowled very well and Yuzi was able to take wickets from the other end. We definitely won this game because of the bowlers.
Eoin Morgan
We lost two in batsmen and it really hurt us. It was an excellent spell from Chahal. Credit should be given where it is due. India played the better cricket today. Beautiful wicket to bat and we would have taken 190-200 at the beginning. We take a lot of things. The biggest thing is our bowling. We showed improvement in our bowling department. Tonight's batting performance has been our worst in a couple of years.
Virat Kohli
Coming back here after a while. It has been a long time since we played the IPL final. Even after losing all three tosses, we won the series, just like the Test series. It is not a very bad thing to have MS Dhoni behind the stumps. I am new to the limited overs format and I keep taking help. A lot of credit goes to them. Yes, that too and that one over from Jordan to Yuvi. We thought 175-180, but that over took us to 200. Credit to Chahal, he knows the ground better. I have a lot of faith in him and he plays his cricket with confidence. He has to maintain his orginality and it is great to have a guy who has so much zeal. I wanted to send him up, but he is the one to say he will bat down the order. He is a champion player and he is a match-winner. Come to the big game, he stepped up. It is a memorable tour. When we went to England we lost the Test series. It has been a brilliant couple of months for this side.