The China Mail - Buttler, Carse lead England to 165-9 in second T20 against India

Buttler hit 45 and Carse 31 off 17 deliveries in as the tourists look to level the five-match series in Chennai after India won the opener.

Spinners Axar Patel and Varun Chakravarthy took two wickets each.

Buttler, who made 68 in the first match, started aggressively despite England losing openers Phil Salt for four and Ben Duckett for three.

Left-arm quick Arshdeep Singh struck with the fourth ball of the match to have Salt caught for his 98th T20 wicket in 62 matches.

Spinner Washington Sundar got Duckett with his first ball, luring him into an attempted reverse sweep, but Buttler and Harry Brook then took up the attack with a flurry of sixes and fours.

Brook lasted eight balls for his 13 before first-match hero Chakravarthy bowled the England vice-captain.

Wickets kept tumbling as left-arm spinner Patel dismissed Buttler and then Liam Livingstone out for 13.

Jamie Smith smashed 22 off 12 balls, hitting one four and two sixes in his T20 debut before falling to Abhishek Sharma's left-arm spin.

Carse then took on the spinners and hit two successive sixes off Chakravarthy but was run out after a mix-up with Jofra Archer, who stood unbeaten on 12 off nine balls.

C.Mak--ThChM