A well-disciplined bowling attack, following up on Ben Duckett's second T20I half-century, guided England to a 26-run win over India, in Rajkot, on Tuesday. With the win, England reduced India's lead to 2-1 in the five-match series. The visitors had been hoping that their counter-attack would sooner or later be able to outsmart India. They attempted, and somewhere until the ninth over, it seemed good. Jos Buttler and Ben Duckett in the middle, and 83 for 1 on the board. And then came a new but by-now-old foe - Varun Chakravarthy. This time, with a ball shorter than Buttler had expected, which was ultimately undercut to the wicketkeeper.

Until the time Buttler and Ben Duckett were at the centre, batting conditions looked comfortable. Within a span of seven deliveries in the fourth and fifth over particularly, bowled by Hardik Pandya and Washington Sundar respectively, Duckett hammered five boundaries and a six. Buttler was not able to get the same sort of acceleration in his innings but after reverse-sweeping Bishnoi for a boundary in the seventh hope, he hit a tossed up ball by the leggie over long on fence. But against Chakravarthy, it was a different story for the English batters.Jamie Smith and Jamie Overton departed in successive deliveries in the 14th over. In the last over of his spell, Brydon Carse flicked him to the fielder at deep square leg, and Jofra Archer was cleaned up with a google. In a matter of seven overs from since Buttler's departure, the visitors slid to 127 for 8, with Chakravarthy finishing his four-over spell with five wickets to his credit. Fellow spinners - Axar Patel and Ravi Bishnoi also joined Chakravarthy's party and threw England off their momentum completely. Duckett mistimed a slog off Axar to mid-on and Harry Brook under edged a sweep off Bishnoi on to his stumps. Liam Livingstone's late assault, a 24-ball 43, offered some respite. He slogged Bishnoi for three sixes in the 17th over, but departed in the next over. England's last two batters, Adil Rashid and Mark Wood negotiated in the remaining deliveries in their innings to help them to a respectable 171 for 8 - slightly more competitive and eventually matchwinning.

The contest, which seemed slightly in India's favour courtesy Abhishek Sharma's early assault, got a bit more exciting when Suryakumar Yadav top-edged a scoop flick to Phil Salt in the last over of the powerplay, reducing India to 48 for 3. By then, his enterprising stroke play and Abhishek Sharma's cameo were undone by the dismissal of the duo along with Sanju Samson, leading India early into a rebuilding phase. Hardik Pandya and Tilak Varma kept their cool, but the Indian batsmen were also tested by Adil Rashid's spin. With turn available in the surface, the leggie employed his variations of pace to great effect. Varma was caught out by a sharply turning leg break that beat him on the inside edge and cleaned him up in the ninth over.

Washington Sundar also did not have it any simpler attempting to negotiate the dip, loop and lack of pace to go with the turn that Rashid was receiving from the surface. His 14-ball 6 in the middle overs decisively switched the control in England's favor. Meanwhile, Rashid completed a brilliant spell, giving only 15 runs. Keeping the ball slow and low, Hardik Pandya, however, could not get the big shots going despite a few attempts. The English pacers toyed around nicely with the pace, camouflaging the slower ones nicely with their high speeds. A few sixes were interspersed with a number of mistimed shots for singles. Axar Patel had it no better either, scraping his way to a 15-ball 16 before top-edging Jofra Archer to short third. As the needed rate continued to rise and crossed India's realistic opportunity, It simply became a procession of wickets in the end, with Shami top-edging his swing to deep long on and Dhruv Jurel scooping the ball to the 'keeper. Bishnoi hit the last ball for a boundary, but that was much too little for India.

Brief Scores: England 171/9 in 20 overs (Ben Duckett 51, Liam Livingstone 43; Varun Chakravarthy 5- 24, Hardik Pandya 2-33) beat India 145/9 in 20 overs (Hardik Pandya 40, Abhishek Sharma 24; Jamie Overton 3-24, Brydon Carse 2-28) by 26 runs