Alex Hales’ unbeaten 58 off 41 balls, studded with four fours and three sixes, guided England to a five-wicket win with two balls to spare in the second T20I here on Friday.

Chasing a target of 149, Jason Roy and Jos Buttler both fell to Umesh Yadav by the fifth over. The hosts also lost Joe Root and skipper Eoin Morgan cheaply when Hales joined hands with Jonny Bairstow (28, 18b, 2×6). Their 34-run stand for the fifth wicket swung the match in England’s favour. With the hosts needing 12 off the final over, Hales sealed it with a six and a four off the first two deliveries off Bhuvneshwar Kumar who had bowled a tight spell till then.

Final over assault

Earlier, the seasoned M.S. Dhoni clobbered 22 runs in the last over to lift India from a precarious 22 for three to 148 for five under testing conditions.

Skipper Virat Kohli top-scored with 47 against a much-improved English attack, but it was Dhoni’s effort that gave the visitors’ total a semblance of respectability. Dhoni remained unbeaten on 32 off 24 balls with five boundaries. Put in, India lost its openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan, and last game’s centurion K.L. Rahul, with just 22 on the board.

The visitors struggled to cope with the bounce in the Sophia Gardens surface. However, Kohli stood firm amid the ruins and found an able ally in Suresh Raina (27) with whom the captain added 57 for the fourth wicket.

Kohli fell to a good catch by Joe Root, three short of fifty. Kohli struck two sixes and a four in his 38-ball knock, before Dhoni took over.

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