Tilak Varma talks about his heroics in 2nd T20I
What's the story
Tilak Varma was the hero of India's nail-biting two-wicket win over England in the second T20I at Chennai's Chepauk Stadium. The home team's bowlers, spearheaded by Axar Patel and Varun Chakravarthy, kept England down to 165/9. Despite Jos Buttler's 45 and Brydon Carse's quickfire 31, England found it hard to stitch partnerships against India's spinners. Here's what the Indian star had to say about his match-winning knock.
Match-winning innings
Varma's unbeaten 72 guides India to victory
India's chase started shakily with Brydon Carse taking three wickets. Meanwhile, Varma stepped up with an unbeaten 72 off 55 balls, smashing five boundaries and three sixes. His gritty knock anchored the innings under tremendous pressure. Varma displayed remarkable composure, picking up the pace when needed and swinging the momentum in India's favor. Notably, his performance clinched both the match and series for India.
Post-match reflections
Varma reflects on his match-winning performance
The 22-year-old spoke about his match-winning performance, in a post-match interaction. "I love to finish games. When I got opportunities before, I was doing well with the bat but couldn't finish the games. So I thought it's a good opportunity now and I played trusting on our gameplan," he said. Notably, Varma's score of 72 matched his jersey number in this game, something teammate and skipper Suryakumar Yadav pointed out during the media interaction.
Stellar form
Varma's consistent performances boost India's T20 setup
Varma has been in sensational form, amassing 280 runs in four innings at an average of 140.00 and a strike rate of 198.58 during the T20 series against South Africa in late 2024. Notably, his performance also included two centuries, one being a stunning 120* off just 47 balls. Before his heroics against England, he impressed in domestic cricket, narrowly missing a century against Karnataka in the Vijay Hazare Trophy.