India vs England 4th T20I LIVE SCORE: Rinku Singh falls, IND's slender hopes rest on Pandya, Dube

India vs England 4th T20I LIVE SCORE: Rinku Singh and Abhishek Sharma have got India past the 50-run mark after the hosts made a horror start to the match

India vs England 4th T20I LIVE SCORE: Rinku Singh and Abhishek Sharma chose attack as the best form of defence for India as they powered India past the 50-run mark in the eighth over. Saqib Mahmood, bowling for the first time on this tour, started off with two wickets off his very first two balls and then went on to pick another one in the same over in the fourth T20I between India and England in Pune. He thus got a rare triple-wicket maiden and it has left India with a deep hole to climb out of just 12 balls into the match. Saqib dismissed Sanju Samson and Tilak Varma with his first two balls of the tour itself and Suryakumar fell off the last ball. Jos Buttler won the toss at last, having lost it all three times before today in this series, and England are bowling first. India have brought back Rinku Singh and Arshdeep Singh for Dhruv Jurel and Mohammed Shami respectively and added Shivam Dube to provide some firepower in the middle order in place of Washington Sundar....Read More

This series has been a battle between India's spinners and England's pacers, with batters on both sides blowing hot and cold. India won the first battle emphatically, then just about managed to keep England out in the second thanks to Tilak Varma. In the third, though, even a five-wicket haul from Varun Chakravarthy was not enough for them to avoid defeat. England seem to have got increasingly better at winning in these conditions in their own way as the series progressed and so India would know that they have their task cut out as far as keeping their lead goes for the rest of this series.

Some of India's batters will be under the spotlight today, particularly openers Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma. Both their positions are set to be threatened by Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill whenever they return to the T20 fold. Samson had done more than enough to get an extended run in the position thanks to his three centuries in four innings before this series. Here, though, he seems to have been completely found out by Jofra Archer and Co. Abhishek Sharma played a blinder in the first T20I but wasn't able to make much of an impact in the second and third matches.

Captain Suryakumar Yadav fell for a two-ball duck in the first T20I and then couldn't capitalise on starts in the second and third. In his last six innings, he has scored just 52 runs. This is the first time that he has gone six innings without a fifty in T20Is. However, assistant coach Ryan Ten Doeschate has indicated that India are not too bothered by this as this sort of a run is bound to come when batters stick to a high-risk approach.

"Someone like Surya has set such high standards [set] by himself, and I wouldn't say consistency or predictability is a particularly high marker in T20 cricket," ten Doeschate said. "The job we ask from these guys is to go out and score really quickly and the way the international T20 game has gone, we are allowed for a bit of consistency and a lean patch like he is going through at the moment."

England's ploy of throwing the kitchen sink at the Indian bowlers, particularly the spinners, almost worked at the Chepauk in the second T20I. The fact remains that they would have probably stuck to that tactic in Rajkot for the third T20I even if it hadn't worked at all in Chennai. Such is the Bazball way. They have their task cut out for them, though - in India they are facing a side who have won 15 of the 18 T20Is they have played since they won the 2024 T20 World Cup. India are also unbeaten in their last 17 T20I series at home, with their last defeat being a 2-0 loss to Australia in February 2019.

Here are some pointers to India vs England 4th T20I:

- Rinku and Abhishek put up a partnership of 45 runs off 32 balls for the third wicket

- Saqib Mahmood got a triple-wicket maiden in his very first over of the tour, dismissing Sanju Samson, Tilak Varma and Suryakumar Yadav in the 2nd over of the match

- India have brought back Arshdeep Singh and Rinku Singh and Shivam Dube has been included for the first time this series

- Jos Buttler won the toss and England are bowling first

- India lost the third T20I by lost the third T20I by 26 runs which allowed England to stay alive in the series

- Varun Chakravarthy has taken a whopping 10 wickets in just three matches at an average of 8.50

- Adil Rashid may have taken just three wickets in the series but his economy of 5.60 is the best between the two sides by a long way

- Abhishek Sharma has been India's highest run scorer with 115 runs at a strike rate of 212.96

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