While most of us were busy watching the heroics of India’s Test team in Birmingham, the Men in Blue pulled off a terrific T20 win on Sunday in Northampton. The Dinesh Karthik-led Indian side locked horns with Northamptonshire in a warm-up T20 game as the visitors prepare for a bilateral series, comprising 3 T20Is and as many ODIs, after the conclusion of the rescheduled Test. Harshal Patel smashed a half-century and then picked a couple of wickets as India defeated the County side by 10 runs.
The Indian top-order crumbled as the likes of Sanju Samson and Suryakumar Yadav secured ducks. While captain Karthik scored a 26-ball 34, Harshal smashed 54 runs off just 36 deliveries before losing his wicket to Brandon Glover. The latter’s knock was laced with 5 boundaries and 3 sixes. He lifted the Indians from 72 for 5 in 11.5 overs to 149/8 in 20 overs.
Fabulous knocked by Harshal Patel 54(36) including 5(4s) , 3(6s)#Warmupmatch pic.twitter.com/bdYXIMDHGY
— Sohailcrickter@gmail.Com (@sohailcrickter) July 4, 2022
After making a stellar contribution with the bat in hand, Harshal starred with the ball. He pocketed two wickets for 23 runs in 3.3 overs as India restricted the hosts to 139. Yuzvendra Chahal, Avesh Khan and Arshdeep Singh scalped a couple of wickets apiece while Venkatesh Iyer and Prasidh Krishna picked one each.
Harshal Patel wins us the match. 🇮🇳🔥
Man of The Match performance. pic.twitter.com/LzNRio9A4C
– Abhishek Ojha (vicharabhio) July 3, 2022
Earlier, asked to bat first, India were off to a disastrous start losing Sanju Samson in the very first delivery of the match, the successful bowler being skipper Joshua Cobb. One-down bat Rahul Tripathi, too, did not last long but more trouble awaited India as pacer Brandon Glover sent back Suryakumar Yadav to leave the visitors tottering at 8/3 in the third over.
That signalled the arrival of Dinesh Karthik and the seasoned campaigner straightaway got into the groove with a few boundaries and a six. However, he got out after making a brisk 34 off 26 balls as India slipped to 72 for five at the start of the 12th over.
Venkatesh Iyer scored a sedate 20 off 22 balls, but it was Harshal who did the bulk of the scoring when India needed runs to put up a challenging total.
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