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Attacking knocks from skipper Jos Buttler and Brydon Carse helped England reach 165-9 against India in the second T20 international match on Saturday.
Buttler hit 45 and Carse 31 from 17 deliveries as the tourists look to level the five-match series in Chennai after India won the first match.
Spinners Axar Patel and Varun Chakravarthy took two wickets each.
Buttler, who made 68 in the first match, started aggressively despite England losing Phil Salt for four and Ben Duckett for three.
Left-arm quick Arshdeep Singh struck with the fourth ball of the match for Salt to grab his 98th T20 wicket in 62 matches.
Spinner Washington Sundar picked up Duckett with his first ball, luring him into a reverse sweep attempt, but Buttler and Harry Brook then resumed the attack with a flurry of sixes and fours.
Brook lasted eight balls for his 13 before opener hero Chakravarthy bowled the England vice-captain.
Wickets continued to tumble as left-arm spinner Patel dismissed Buttler and then Liam Livingstone for 13.
Jamie Smith smashed 22 off 12 balls, hitting a four and two sixes on his T20 debut before falling to Abhishek Sharma’s left-arm spin.
Carse then took on the spinners and hit two successive sixes against Chakravarthy, but was run out after a mix-up with Jofra Archer, who remained unbeaten on 12 off nine balls.
fk/pbt
