England solved a few issues they faced in the opening T20 clash against India during their hard-fought win in the second match in Cardiff.

The hosts were thoroughly outplayed in the first T20 in Manchester with their batting and bowling failing to make much of an impression on Virat Kohli’s team.

However, Eoin Morgan’s team got their act together on a tricky wicket at Sophia Gardens to keep India’s batsmen and bowlers in check. A total of 148-5 would have been even lower but for a final over from Jake Ball that leaked 22 runs.

The first area England bowlers improved and possibly set the tone for the remainder of the series is the length.

England quicks tested the middle of the pitch a lot more than their Indian counterparts, with nearly half the deliveries bowled to both left and right handed batsmen half-way down the track or even shorter.

According to CricViz, England bowlers shortened their length by nearly 15 per cent on Friday, which resulted in the Indian batsmen struggling to control the strokes on a pitch that had indifferent bounce.

That’s a strategy England can sustain as they have quicks like Liam Plunkett and Chris Jordan in limited-overs cricket and Stuart Broad, and hopefully Ben Stokes, in Tests who can pepper the opposition with the short stuff.

Indian batsmen have definitely improved their game against the short ball but there is not a lot you can do against well-directed short bowling.

Also, England backed themselves and went after Kuldeep Yadav, not allowing him to settle at all and more importantly, not giving him a single wicket.

The demons from the first T20 where Kuldeep took five wickets vanished and the England camp got belief in their batting back, especially against quality wrist spin. The job is not done but England made giant strides on Friday ahead of Sunday’s decider in Bristol.