Watch: In the fourth T20I between India and England in Pune on Friday (January 31), the visitors removed home captain Suryakumar Yadav with a unique leg-side field.
England skipper Jos Buttler won the toss for the first time in the series, and chose to field first. India took the upper hand early on as Abhishek Sharma hit Jofra Archer for four and six to finish the opening over.
Opening the bowling from the other end was Saqib Mahmood, playing for the first time in this series. Mahmood struck with his first delivery, a short ball pulled by Sanju Samson straight to Brydon Carse at deep square leg. The next ball, Tilak Varma slashed at one to hole out at third for a golden duck.
Match 4th T20I, India vs England
vs
- Ball by ball Over
India skipper Suryakumar Yadav then walked in, and safely negotiated the hat-trick ball. But England employed a strange field set for him – two slips, a leg slip, short leg under the helmet and a squarish silly mid-on – effectively three infield catchers on the onside, extremely rare for a T20 match.
With leg slip and short leg presumably in place for the short ball from Mahmood, the silly mid-on was the one most tailored to SKY himself, as a heavy scorer in the region to the right of the traditional mid-on.
Read more: Discarded India all-rounder continues dream Ranji run with batting blitz, first-over wickets
The plan paid off eventually. After blocking out two more length deliveries from Mahmood, SKY went after a full delivery off the final ball of the over. He caught it well, but hit it straight to the catcher, Brydon Carse at the in-between mid-on position – resulting in a triple-wicket maiden for Mahmood, in his first over of the series.
India were reduced to 12-3 and then 79-5, before recovering to post 181-9.
Watch Saqib Mahmood take Suryakumar Yadav's wicket here
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