Fast bowler Harshit Rana came in as a controversial concussion substitute for his T20 debut and returned figures of 3-33 to help India clinch the series against England.
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Hardik Pandya and Shivam Dube, a left-hand batsman, put on 87 for the sixth wicket to lift India from a precarious 79-5 to 181-9 after being invited to bat first in the fourth match in Pune.
Rana and leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi then took three wickets each as India bowled out England for 166 to win by 15 runs for an unbeatable 3-1 lead in the five-match series.
“Three wickets in one over was too much,” India captain Suryakumar Yadav said on his team’s early wobble.
“But the positivity, and the way Dube and Pandya showed their experience in the middle was great.”
India extended their unbeaten T20 series record to 17 at home since 2019.
But Rana dominated TV discussion between commentators when he took the field for Dube, who was hit on the helmet by Jamie Overton in the penultimate ball of the Indian batting innings.
According to cricket laws, a concussion substitute must be “a like-for-like player whose inclusion will not excessively advantage his/her team for the remainder of the match”. The Match Referee must, therefore, assess “the likely role the concussed player would have played during the remainder of the match and the normal role that would be performed by the nominated Concussion Replacement”.
The Match Referee for this India-England clash was Javigal Srinath.
Rana made his T20 debut but his substitution, which was not like-for-like with Dube a batting all-rounder, did not amuse the visitors with cricketer-turned-commentator Kevin Pietersen slamming the move on air.
“If you ask anybody in the world whether Harshit Rana is a like-for-like replacement, I’m not sure anyone would say that they are,” Pietersen said in commentary.
“He gets an extra bit of pace. He is a tall, bustling fast bowler. I can tell you something now, that England dressing room will not be happy. Jos Buttler wasn’t happy when he got out because of the substitution. It’s not like for like.”
Ex-England captain Michael Vaughan added on Cricbuzz: “How they found that Harshit Rana is a like-for-like for Shivam Dube – an out-and-out bowler to replace a batter that bowls some part-time stuff – is beyond me.
“England would’ve done the same by the way if they had the chance to replace a player for the same kind of player India did (lose) in the end. But you can’t tell me that Harshit Rana is a like-for-like replacement for Shivam Dube.
“So he (Srinath) has decided that Shivam Dube is going to bowl four overs in the second innings? I can guarantee you if Shivam Dube had have bowled four overs, England would’ve chased that target down.”
The Match Referee’s call on a concussion replacement request is final and “neither team shall have any right of appeal”.
England captain Jos Buttler post-match said it was “not a like-for-like replacement”.
“Either Shivam Dube has put on about 25mph with the ball or Harshit has really improved his batting,” Buttler told reporters. “It’s part of the game and we really should have gone on to win the match, but we disagree with the decision.
“There was no consultation (with us). That’s something I was thinking as I came out to bat – who is Harshit on for? They said he is a concussion replacement, which I obviously disagreed with. It is not a like-for-like replacement. They said that the match referee had made the decision. We had no say in it or any part of it. But we’ll ask Javagal some questions just to get some clarity around it.
“Like I said, it was not the whole reason why we did not win the match. We had our chances to win the game which we could have still taken. But I’d like to have a bit more clarity on that.”
India’s assistant coach Morne Morkel explained the process that led to Rana being subbed into the game.
“Shivam came off the field in the innings break with mild headache symptoms,” Morkel said.
“We took a name forward to the match referee in terms of a suitable substitution, and from there it is up to the match referee to make the decision.
“When the decision was made, Harshit was having dinner. So we had to get him ready as quickly as possible to go on the field and bowl.
“It goes to the powers above me – match referee makes the decision. We can only take the name forward and from there it is out of our hands.”
Despite the circumstances, Rana still declared it “a dream debut for me”.
“When Dube came back, after two overs I was informed I will be the concussion substitute,” he said.
“I have been preparing for a while, not just for this series. I have been waiting for this moment (his debut) to prove myself. When I got the chance, I did not think of the circumstances and just thought about delivering. I have experience of bowling at the death and relied on that.”
Rana was instrumental in sending Jos Buttler back when he caught the skipper at short third man off Bishnoi and later got his first T20 wicket for India in Liam Livingstone.
Rana also dismissed Jacob Bethel and played a key bowling role alongside spinners Bishnoi (3-28) and Varun Chakravarthy (2-28).
Phil Salt and Ben Duckett set up the chase in a quickfire opening stand of 62 in 36 balls but their departure raised India’s hopes.
Harry Brook smashed 51 off 26 balls to revive the chase but his dismissal off Chakravarthy, who took another wicket in the over, once again put India ahead.
The rest of the England batting wilted as spinners and Rana combined to pack them off in 19.4 overs.
Earlier England bowled first and speedster Saqib Mahmood, who was added in place of Mark Wood, made an instant impact when he had Sanju Samson caught for 12 with his first ball.
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He struck again with the wicket of Tilak Varma to be on a hat-trick, although Indian skipper Suryakumar Yadav managed to avoid it. Yadav, however, lasted only four balls before being dismissed by Mahmood for a duck.
Rinku Singh, who made 30, and Abhishek Sharma, with 29, both attempted to counter-attack with a flurry of boundaries but leg-spinner Adil Rashid broke through with Abhishek’s wicket.
Brydon Carse took down Rinku but Dube, who was dropped on zero by Buttler at slip and went on to be named man of the match, and Pandya took on the Indian attack.
“Disappointing, we did some good things,” said Buttler.
“I dropped a catch and Dube played a really good innings. We were in a fantastic position with the bat, then lost wickets together.”
Pandya smashed four fours and four sixes in his 30-ball blitz before being dismissed by Overton and Dube was run out on the final ball.
The final match is on Sunday in Mumbai.
— AFP
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