Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was both headline act and bit-part player on a chill, windswept Manchester afternoon. He made his hotly anticipated debut to become, at 15 years and 99 days, the youngest Indian men’s international and the second youngest in all formats and from all full member nations.
But it was England’s youngest player, even if Jacob Bethell is a comparative veteran at 22 – “It feels weird to say I’m playing against someone seven years younger than me,” he said – who decided the match and in effect did so in the space of a single Ravi Bishnoi over.
Before it England needed 49 off 24 balls and were in trouble, after it they needed 20 off 18 and were in clover. Thanks in large part to Bethell’s 76 off 46 deliveries, they cantered to victory by four wickets with an over to spare.
“There’s nothing sweeter as a batter than walking off with a win, not out, shaking the boys’ hands,” Bethell said. Of the two sixes struck after Bishnoi’s back-foot no-balls, he said: “Free hits are quite a weird thing – sometimes you get sucked into swinging too hard and end up chucking it to midwicket for one.
“I probably would have tried to put my foot down in that over anyway … but it was about picking the moment and moments won’t come easier than when you get two free hits. You know that’s your cue.”
On a high-scoring ground, with wind whipping across the outfield in the direction of the shorter boundary, and with its afternoon start meaning the game coincided with peak TV viewing time at home, India decided this was the moment to blood their teenage prodigy. But Sooryavanshi’s innings lasted 10 balls. Though two of them disappeared into the crowd – including the first delivery he faced from his Rajasthan Royals teammate Jofra Archer, lofted over his right shoulder while on one knee, an extraordinary shot – this was a hint of his promise rather than a full demonstration.
It was their other opener, Abhishek Sharma, who, with Ishan Kishan, helped India surge to 130 after 13 overs, at which point they seemed on course for a total well above 200. But England quietened them for a while, Sam Curran excelling in this period with two wickets for 10 runs off two overs.
It took a late acceleration from Tilak Varma, who was put down in the deep by Archer on one and hit the same player for two sixes and a four in the final over, to carry India to 190 for seven, the most marginal improvement on the 189 for seven England had declared under-par in the rain-abridged first game of the series on Wednesday.
England’s openers also made history: this was the first time neither has managed a run, both of them falling in Arshdeep Singh’s opening over. But though Harry Brook, author of a crucial cameo of 39 off 15, kickstarted their recovery by savaging 27 off Singh’s next, England struggled to tuck in to the diet of spin India thereafter chose to feed them – Axar Patel in particular outstanding.
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But then came Bishnoi, and his curious, parabolic and, it transpired, unreliable run-up. He had already bowled one back-foot no-ball, but then he started his final over with another, Bethell dispatched the free hit for six, and then another no-ball led to another free hit and another six, and on it went from there.
While Sooryavanshi, for all the publicity he has attracted since he made his Indian Premier League debut at the improbable age of 13, is a bit of an unknown quantity in this country, India know all about Bethell, who scored a brilliant century in a losing cause when these teams met in the T20 World Cup semi-final in March. This time his efforts were rewarded. “There’s a few scars against India, so it’s nice to get one up on them,” he said.
Ishan Kishan said: “We were in a situation where we thought we had the game but getting those free hits made it easier for [Bethell] to get the pressure out. But we have to give him credit, he was in the middle for a long time and he understood when to charge and who to charge. He batted very beautifully, but we understand what we could have done better.”