The England cricket team has taken the lead by 2-1 in the ongoing five match T20I series after defeating team India in the third T20I which was played at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad. This match was quite special for England skipper Eoin Morgan as it was his 100th T20I match and he would have been very happy after leading his team to victory.
However, there is one strange thing which has been noticed by many during the three T20 matches which have been played till now and that is Eoin Morgan sporting two caps while he is on the field. Well, it has nothing to do with style or fashion trend but is something which Morgan is doing because of COVID-19.
Earlier when the world was not hit by the coronavirus pandemic, the bowlers used to handover their things (caps, towels, sunglasses, etc.) to the umpires while bowling but after the pandemic, as per the new guidelines released by the International Cricket Council, the players are not allowed to handover their things to the umpires and now they have to take care of their things on their own.
However as the players are living in the same bio-bubble, they can handover their things to each other and because of this, Eoin Morgan is seen wearing two caps, one is his own while the second one is of his bowler who is bowling at that time.
Due to COVID-19 scare, the Board of Control for Cricket in India decided to play the last three T20I matches of the series without spectators while the first two were played with 50 percent crowd. The ODI series which is going to take place in Pune will also be played without spectators.
As far as the match is concerned, England won the toss and decided to bowl first. The hosts managed to put up a score of 156/6 with the help of Indian skipper Virat Kohli’s smashing knock of 77 for which he played only 46 deliveries and his innings included 8 fours and 4 sixes. England easily achieved the target with the help of Jos Buttler’s 83 in 52 balls (5 fours & 4 sixes) and Jonny Bairstow’s 40 in 28 balls (5 fours) and won the match by 8 wickets with 10 balls remaining in their innings.
With this win, England is now leading by 2-1 and needs to win one more match to win the series. However, the Indian cricket team needs to win both the remaining matches if it wants to win the series.
The fourth T20I will be played today (18th March) and it will be interesting to see which team wins this match.