England, on the back of a superlative innings by Jos Buttler, swatted aside the Indian team in the third T20I to take a 2-1 lead in the five-match series, being played at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Buttler stayed unbeaten on 83 off just 52 balls as steered his side to chase the target of 157 runs down.

England didn’t have a fast start and lost the wicket of the opener Jason Roy in just the fourth over. However, Buttler just took off after that and Indian bowlers had no clue about his destructive hitting prowess. Buttler was his belligerent best as he raced to 38 off just 15 balls.

Dawid Malan provided him good support with a run-a-ball 18 before he was dismissed by Washington Sundar. However, that was the last instance for the Indian team to get happy about something in the second innings as Buttler was joined by Jonny Bairstow and the duo didn’t give any chances to the home side and finished the game with an unbeaten 77-run partnership. Bairstow remained unbeaten on 40 off just 28 balls as England chased down the total in 18.2 overs.

Earlier, skipper Virat Kohli’s exceptional 77*-run knock helped India to recover from a poor start and post a respectable total. Virat along with Hardik Pandya stitched a 33-ball 70-run partnership after they were in deep trouble at 86/5.

India again got off to a poor start as they lost three wickets inside the first six overs, which put pressure on the middle order not just to rebuild but also score quick runs to put a competitive total on the board against a strong English batting line-up. However, Virat Kohli’s efforts went in vain as 157 wasn’t enough on the day.