NICK HOWSON highlights the major incidents from the third T20 international, played behind closed doors in Ahmedabad
India v England: 3rd T20 scorecard
Paul Collingwood hails centurion Eoin Morgan: "It's an amazing achievement"
It was notable that at the toss India captain Virat Kohli drew attention to the series being finely poised at 1-1, after being asked about crowds being prevented from attending the final three T20s.
A rise in Covid-19 cases, which has raised concerns regarding another wave of infections in the country, led to the move on the eve of the third match.
And as far as Kohli was concerned, it was just as well the teams were tied heading into the final batch of matches, otherwise, there might have been a real lack of intensity.
"It's good the series is poised, and England will come hard," he said. "Obviously, crowds are an added advantage, but having said that you have to be professional."
There was some unfortunate irony to the timing of the announcement, coming just hours after Jason Roy had spoken openly about how behind closed doors cricket affected his affection for the sport.
Those emotions will surely only be heightened when players psych themselves up for crowds, only to find out they're playing in front of empty seats. The opposite is also true.
The nature of countries being at different stages of the pandemic and cricket being played across the world means teams will have to learn to temper their expectations.
For example, The Daily Mail are reporting that despite tickets having sold out for the two New Zealand Tests at Lord's and Edgbaston, neither game has been chosen as pilot events to test the return of fans.
That means refunds for many ticketholders and the capacity of both grounds being limited to 25 per cent, as per the government roadmap.
This is another sad inevitability of the current climate, against the backdrop of all the other compromises we're making. Our entire lives have become TBC.
Eoin Morgan became the first England man to reach 100 T20 international appearances in Ahmedabad.
Just a trio of male players have reached three figures for outings in the 20-over format, with Shoaib Malik, Rohit Sharma and Ross Taylor the only ones with more.
While the landmark is an admirable achievement, he is not the first player to represent England to reach this point. Indeed, his 100 doesn't even see him in the top 20 of all time.
Seventeen women have at least a century outings in this format, including England's Danni Wyatt and Jenny Gunn. New Zealand's Suzie Bates has the most on 122.
We could do without extending whatever gap remains between both genders by totally ignoring the contribution the women have made to this format, in particular.
While it was a welcome sight to see cricket return to free-to-air TV and back on Channel Four, the sport is back in its rightful place for the white-ball matches.
Taking nothing away from C4, they provided admirable coverage at short-notice in the early hours. But Sky Sports dominate this industry and not just because they have the cash to pay for it.
Preceding the action was 30 minutes of top-notch analysis, led by Nasser Hussain, Rob Key, Michael Atherton, Dinesh Karthik, Stuart Broad and Ian Smith.
Top of the agenda was the significance of winning the toss in T20s, and whether the most unpredictable of formats was starting to become formulaic, particularly in this part of the world.
We've just had a PSL where one of the 14 completed matches was won by the chasing side. The first three T20s of this series have also been won handsomely by the side batting second.
Win the toss, win the game? 🤔@nassercricket looks at why it is easier to chase in T20s in India when the ball becomes 'a bar of soap' 🧼
— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) March 16, 2021
Remind me never to play Nass at beach cricket! 🤣🏖️
📺 Watch #INDvENG 👉 https://t.co/bT0CP9Q8No
📱 Blog 👉 https://t.co/fZ3IgD51o7 pic.twitter.com/zpiH1jvx7j
Let's drill down to some of the numbers.
As per Sky Sports, in PSL and IPL matches that reach an outcome outside of the United Arab Emirates, 65 per cent have been won by those fielding first since 2016.
For T20Is in India, that figure reduces to 52 per cent and heading into this game drops further to 50.
It will be interesting to see if that trend continues as this series reaches a climax. Particularly given that the Narendra Modi Stadium is due to host the T20 World Cup final on November 14.
England's troubles in the first six overs and firmly behind them now.
Twenty four dots, three wickets and just 24 India runs. Another job well done.
Regardless of the final outcome of this series, that return will very much be in the tick column when Eoin Morgan reflects on these 10 days.
It was no coincidence that it came upon Jofra Archer and Mark Wood being reunited in the team, after the Durham seamer returned to fitness. They now have 10 wickets in the first six overs in their five appearances together.
Wood is very quickly emerging as one of England's most important players in 2021, with the red and white ball.
His extra pace on a red soil pitch will assist the new ball and that combination did for the hapless KL Rahul, who will do well to survive this latest failure, and then Rohit Sharma.
Such was the licks in this line-up, it probably contributed to England's downfall at the death when Kohli and Hardik Pandya used the pace to post a respectable total.
Nevertheless, this has been exactly what the doctor ordered for Morgan, in the types of conditions they will face later in the year.
The challenge now is keeping them both fit for the duration of the year.
England were once again potent with the new ball
Kohli is the best all-format batsman in the world. Yet, it feels as though we've stopped acknowledging that.
His base level is so high it is easy to accept his brilliance as just another day at the office.
Indeed, we have reached the point where his failures are largely the only thing notable about his displays. Big runs are met with shrugs.
It is easy to forget that he registered one of the best innings of the Test series in the second game at Chennai, coming off the back of a first-innings duck.
He'd gone at a run-a-ball 29 with India five down and staring down the barrel of a substandard score.
But the next 17 deliveries from Wood, Archer and Chris Jordan went for 48, with a quintet of fours and four sixes.
Some of the maximums were just glorious and an otherwise perfect Wood was the main victim. The third and fourth deliveries of the 18th over highlighted his class, first as he shuffled around his crease and thrashed the ball over midwicket and then with a simple push over the rope down the ground.
It was a superb knock in the circumstances that deserve to be considered among any which has gone before. And in a T20 career that has been dominated by his second innings success, it was a nice moment first time around.
Jos Buttler followed up a duck in the second T20 with a half-century
India and England had contrasting fortunes regarding selection during the Test series, with the tourists coming off the worst for it.
But there was no faulting Morgan and Chris Silverwood today.
With a red soil pitch expected to take spin, we were told to expect a recall for Moeen Ali.
But the away side revisited the side which won the opening T20, with Tom Curran dropping out.
India meanwhile went back to Rohit Sharma as Suryakumar Yadav dropped out. Two spinners in Washington Sundar and Yuzvendra Chahal contradicted what England had favoured.
And it looked like one too many and with Pandya as one of the three main seamers, they looked a quick short in the XI.
Jos Buttler lined each of them up and rarely looked threatened until he was put down by Kohli.
It was almost a refreshing development, amid the debate around the significance of the toss and the predictability of matches in Ahmedabad, that getting your XI right does make a difference.
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