Southampton, First Published Jul 8, 2022, 2:12 AM IST
Southampton: In the first match of the T20 series, Team India gave a great response to the Englishmen. Rohit and his team made up for the loss in the last match of the Test series with a brilliant 50-run victory. Hardik’s superhero performance with bat and ball was crucial in India’s victory. In front of India’s huge victory target, the English team, which was hit by arrows, had to admit defeat miserably.
Hardika Pandya (51 off 33 balls) scored a half-century for India. Deepak Hooda (33) and Suryakumar Yadav (39) also added charm to the Indian innings. Moeen Ali and Chris Jordan took two wickets each for England. In the reply batting, only Harry Brock (28) and Moeen Ali (36) could hold on a little.
Hardik, who conceded 33 runs and took four wickets, also led India from the front in bowling. Team India was literally tightening the English line-up, which was broken in the beginning by the swing of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Arshadeep Singh. While Chahal and Arshadeep took two wickets for India, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Harshal Patel took one wicket each.
score : India – 198 for eight
England – 148 runs out
A smashing start, then the return of the hitman
India got lucky in the toss and batting early. Captain Rohit Sharma, who returned as a covid-free man, led the Indian attack in the beginning. Rohit Topley, who started with nine runs in the first over bowled by Sam Curran, was in top gear with 11 runs including two boundaries in the second over. In the third over bowled by Moeen Ali, Rohit hit back for two consecutive boundaries by dismissing him on the last ball of the over. Rohit’s score was 24 runs off 14 balls. Deepak Hooda, who came to the crease as one down, struck from the start, but on the other hand, Ishan Kishan (8), who struggled to find his rhythm from the start, was returned by Moeen Ali.
Minnal Hooda
Despite the loss of two wickets, Hooda continued to strike and Suryakumar, who replaced Kishan, took India to 66 runs in the power play. A devastated Hooda team returned before the score crossed 100. Hooda hit 33 runs off 17 balls with two sixes and three fours. Chris Jordan was the wicket.
Pandya Power
Hooda’s replacement, Hardik Pandya, did not fare too well. Pandya, who hit two boundaries in the 10th over bowled by Parkinson, took India to 100, along with Suryakumar, who bowled Tymal Mills for six, kept India’s run rate from falling. In the twelfth over, Chris Jordan tried to rein in India by dropping Suryakumar (39 off 19 balls) in the bouncer, but Pandya and Aksar, who scored 15 runs including three boundaries in one over of Liam Livingstone, took India past 150 in the 14th over. After reaching his half-century in 30 balls, Topley returned Pandya (51).
End without burning
England skipper Jos Buttler missed the opportunity to stump Pandya off Liam Livingstone, which was a blessing for India. But after reaching 150 runs in the fourteenth over, India scored 48 runs in the last six overs. Hardik’s return in the nineteenth over was a setback for India. India managed to score only five runs in the nineteenth over bowled by Chris Jordan.
Tymal Mills bowled the first two balls of the last over and Dinesh Karthik who crossed the boundary was hit back by Mills in the third ball. Harshal Patel was run out on the next ball. India could not cross 200 after scoring only 20 runs in the last three overs. For England, Chris Jordan took two wickets for 23 runs in four overs while Moeen Ali took two wickets for 26 runs in two overs.
India won the toss and elected to bat. While Rohit returned as the captain, Malayali player Sanju Samson was dropped from the final eleven. IPL pacer Arshadeep Singh made his debut for India.
Last Updated Jul 8, 2022, 2:12 AM IST