Eng vs Ind, 1st T20I, Top Performances: Hardik Pandya’s 51 & 4-33, Yuzvendra Chahal's 2-32 and Chris Jordan's 2-23 are top performances.
Brief Scores: India 198/8 (Hardik 51, Suryakumar 39, Jordan 2-23) beat England 148 (Moeen 36, Brook 28, Pandya 4-33) by 50 runs
Player of the match – Hardik Pandya for 51 and 4-33
The first match of the three-match T20I series between India and England started at Rose Bowl in Southampton on Thursday. The first ever T20I match played in England was at this very ground in 2005, when England beat their arch rivals Australia by a huge margin of 100 runs.
India had never played a T20I match at this venue before Thursday’s game. India and England have played against each other in 19 T20Is where the former have won 10 T20Is and England have managed wins in 9 matches. Notably, India have won the last three bilateral T20I series against England (2-1 in 2017, 2-1 in 2018, and 3-2 in 2021).
India captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to bat first as five of the seven games in the T20 Vitality Blast at this venue have been won by teams batting first. The new England white ball captain Jos Buttler was leading a pretty inexperienced bunch of Englishmen. For India, Arshdeep Singh became the 99th player to make his T20I debut for India.
India register huge total and then restrict England
Rohit got his team off to a flyer by hitting five boundaries inside three overs. Moeen Ali was experimental in dismissing both the openers but India still managed to score 66 in the powerplay. Deepak Hooda and Suryakumar Yadav batted aggressively in the middle overs, which has been a conscious change in India’s middle over approach ever since the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 first round exit. But soon after, both of them perished in their 30s to Chris Jordan. Hardik Pandya looked in a different mood altogether as he smoked the bowlers all over the park and brought up his maiden T20I half-century off 30 deliveries.
This was the first time ever in India’s 15 year long T20I history that their numbers 3, 4 and 5 all had a 150+ strike rate having played 10+ deliveries. At 178/5, India were aiming nothing short of 220 with Hardik and Dinesh Karthik at the crease. But the England pacers pulled things back in the last three overs as they conceded just 20 runs and picked three wickets in the process. Jordan was at his very best for England with an economical spell of 2/23 off his four overs, while all the other England bowlers were hammered for more than 8.50 runs per over.
India started their defence with Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Arshdeep Singh. The ball absolutely swung bananas for India’s new ball bowlers as the English batters were having a tough time in the middle. It felt like the team with the “Bazball” mantra was finding it difficult to put bat onto ball. Bhuvneshwar dismissed Buttler for a golden duck with an absolute rip snorter which swung back in from a good length to castle him.
Hardik was at his absolute best picking a four-fer which broke England’s back, while Yuzvendra Chahal was just a class apart picking wickets in the middle overs to dent England’s punctured car further. The Bazball approach of being braver than anyone else on field did go for a toss as their brave batters couldn’t cross 150 runs. Arshdeep picked his maiden wicket and ended with two scalps for India in his first game. With this win, India won their 15th T20I on a trot under Rohit Sharma’s leadership.
Let’s scan the top Three Performances from the first T20I between England and India.
Hardik “all-rounder’ Pandya shines with 51 and 4-33
Hardik Pandya walked into bat in the ninth over with India at 89-3. Hardik put the pedal on the gas right away targeting the inexperienced leggie Matt Parkinson for a couple of boundaries. India’s new approach to not slow down in the middle overs was evident as Hardik kept chipping away boundaries at regular intervals. There was a tinge of Hardik from Gujarat Titans in this innings as he was playing sensible cricket, targeting the leggies for boundaries and playing off the faster bowlers for ones and twos. Hardik had not hit a six till the 29th delivery where he whipped the leggie, Parkinson in a typical Hardik-like lofted six over mid-off. He brought up his maiden T20I fifty for India in the process off just 30 deliveries.
Hardik wasn’t finished just yet; coming into bowl in the fifth over, inside the powerplay, Hardik picked a wicket off the second delivery of his spell where he dismissed Dawid Malan. Pandya then doubled it up by dismissing the dangerous Liam Livingstone for a duck. In his second over, Pandya helped Jason Roy go back to the pavilion as Roy was struggling to put bat onto ball.
Just when we thought it was a good night for Pandya, Hardik came back again in the 14th over to pick his fourth wicket of the match. With the fourth wicket, Hardik became the first ever Indian to score a fifty and pick four wickets in the same game, the fifth overall in world cricket. This is what confidence does to a player. Pandya who was struggling with injuries 12 months ago, after a successful IPL run, came back to the India set-up, captained India and is now doing what he does best, contributing with bat and ball.
Jordan puts the brakes on India’s power-hitting with 2-23
When the opposition has scored nearly 200 runs, it is a rarity that any bowler would have gone for less than six runs per over. Such was the night for Chris Jordan. Coming into bowl at the nine-over mark, Jordan dismissed the centurion for India from their last T20I game, Deepak Hooda, who was looking dangerous, batting at a strike rate of 194.12. A clever slower ball which Hooda didn’t pick as he was predetermined on the scoop shot and ended up just giving catching practice to Mills.
Jordan was brought into the attack again in the 12th over and England’s highest wicket taker in T20Is didn’t disappoint Buttler. He also dismissed Suryakumar Yadav getting him caught behind. In their match-up, Surya had smashed Jordan for 28 runs of 18 deliveries at a strike rate of 170.6 prior to the wicket delivery. This was the first time ever Jordan dismissed Suryakumar.
Jordan had a brilliant day in the park as he contributed both with ball and bat in hand. He was committed to give entertainment to the English spectators as he scored a brisk 17-ball 26 runs when England’s ship almost sank before it could sail out.
Read More: Eng vs Ind, Edgbaston Test 2022: Vihari, Iyer disappoint; Shardul, Jadeja found wanting with ball
Chahal and his chaalak spell of 2-32
As has been the case with Yuzvendra Chahal, more often than not, the leggie has been introduced post the batting powerplay. It was no different under Rohit’s captainship either. Chahal didn’t have the best of starts as he was clobbered for a maximum by Moen Ali in his first over. Chahal is not a leg break bowler, rather he is the “momentum break” bowler, as he squeezed in a couple of economical overs to up the required run-rate for England. It was for everyone to see that the English batters were having a hard time picking Chahal’s flipper, googly and the subtle variation in pace.
Chahal then came back in the 14th over to pick two wickets in five balls to put the final nail in the coffin for England, dismissing both well set partners, Harry Brook and Moeen Ali. In the match-up between Moeen and Chahal in T20 internationals, Yuzi had an upper hand as he had already dismissed Ali in the one ball he has faced way back in 2017.
What’s to Come
India will take on England in the second match of the three-match series on July 9 at Edgbaston in Birmingham.
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