Close. India's tail always meant that something like this was possible once we got Hardik. If anything, they were fortunate to have Thakur's little cameo off Stokes.
Yes - I think it was such a bad ball, it caught him by surprise. Usually, with these incredibly heavy bats, a little tap would go out of the ground .....
Other than Curran getting out, that first ball couldn't have gone worse. Only one run and Topley on strike.
I'm quite happy that Hardik cut off that final ball. Finishing 99* in a losing cause would have been even more gutting than 95*.
Curran found himself in a very tricky situation. By trying to protect Wood, he turned down many singles in the hope he would be able to hit the boundary. Sadly his hitting isn’t as pure/vicious as the top 5 so it might have been, in hindsight, better to grab every run even if it meant Wood having to face more balls. Having said that, the Indian fielders started spilling catches for fun, (two dropped off consecutive balls, I think, plus at least another one) so it could easily have been over sooner. It was more exciting than the football, that’s for sure.
