England won a close game against India in the second T20I of the three-match series owing to Alex Hales’ brilliant responsible knock at Sophia Gardens (Cardiff) on Friday night. India was restricted to 148/5 in 20 overs while England reached the target with two balls to spare and five wickets in hand. England leveled the three-match T20I series by 1-1 after winning the game by 5 wickets.

Hales guided his team to the finish line as England chased down the target of 149. India, on the other hand, had a bad outing as the batsmen failed to deliver. After the loss skipper, Virat Kohli addressed the issue and credited the hosts for tackling the wrist spinners well. He said, “When you lose 3 wickets in the first 6 overs for 30 runs it’s difficult to come back. I thought a partnership would get us to 145, and that would have been competitive. England made good use of the wicket which had some extra bounce. We were pushed back initially in the first six.”

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He further added, “Our power play was not good enough, and the score, in the end, reflects that. We did well and we knew it would be difficult for England to chase down 149, and I think they had the partnership we didn’t to close it off in the end. They played Kuldeep worked really well. They did their homework on Kuldeep and they reaped the rewards. I think we competed quite well but England was the better side, that’s why they came through today. We have got to brush it aside and move onto the next game.”

Meanwhile, Morgan also showered praises for his men and hoped to continue the momentum in the next game as well.

Talking about the game, Morgan said, “To come back from Old Trafford, we played quite well. Willey did well and Jake Ball was great on debut. Alex was fantastic today. We normally play spin well, and the guys had good confidence coming into the series and they stuck to the plans and executed extremely well today.”