Jofra Archer didn’t mince his words comparing conditions in England to the glitzy, high-scoring world of the Indian Premier League (IPL), suggesting that Indian batters were suddenly forced to face cricket in its more traditional, unforgiving form.
Archer’s statement came as India collapsed for a mere 76 runs within 11.4 overs while chasing England’s 201 during the 3rd T20 at Trent Bridge in Nottingham.
The England pacer combined with new-ball partner Josh Tongue to claim seven wickets between them, with Tongue picking up figures of 4-28 in his four overs – his first T20I wickets after going wicketless on debut in Manchester.
Despite Tongue’s impressive display, it was Archer who walked away with the Player of the Match award for the damage he inflicted early on.
He removed Vaibhav Sooryavanshi with a sharp bouncer aimed at leg stump that flew off the glove to wicketkeeper Jos Buttler, then had Shreyas Iyer holing out at deep square leg off a well-directed half-volley, before drawing an edge from Axar Patel with a delivery angled hard on a length outside off.
Every one of those three dismissals came off deliveries clocked at 90mph or faster.
According to reports, England’s seam bowlers averaged 89.9mph during the powerplay, the quickest such spell recorded by the side in T20I history.
Tongue chipped in too, dismissing Abhishek Sharma at deep point and Ishan Kishan at deep backward square leg, as Indian batters struggled to cope with the extra bounce on offer.
Comparing English conditions with what he typically experiences in the IPL, Archer said that bowling here demands a return to basic principles.
“It goes back to normal here,” he said. “You try to bowl straight and good length, whereas over there, because they make it so easy for batters and the boundaries are so small, you have to be really, really particular. Whereas here, I feel like your margin for error is a little bit bigger.”
Archer added that even a target as substantial as 200 doesn’t guarantee safety in IPL conditions, but on this surface, he felt only a truly exceptional batting effort could have chased it down.
“At the IPL, sometimes 200 isn’t safe,” he said. “With 200 on the board on that wicket, I don’t want to say we were confident, but I feel like they would have taken a really special innings there to lose the game. I’m just glad everybody chipped in. Everybody that bowled got wickets today, so I’m just glad to win.”
England have now won 18 of their 21 completed matches since Harry Brook took over as T20 captain last June, with their only defeat in the stretch coming in a rain-shortened five-over shootout against South Africa.
