FIRST T20 : A one-sided affair to begin the Series with.

AHMEDABAD : The first T20 played between India and England which was expected to be an edge of the seat thriller turned out to be an anti-climax at the end of the day. A dominant performance from England with both bat and ball ensures them an 8-wicket victory over India and a series lead of 1-0.

Morgan won the toss and decided to bowl first considering the due factor that the fielding side would have to deal with later on. The batting line-up that England played was expected to take the field anyways but on the bowling front they went with genuine pace in Wood with Jofra, Jordan and Curran. While the only spinner that played was Rashid.

India wanted to rest Rohit so Shikhar could get a chance in the first few games and stuck with Chahal, Axar and Sundar as their spinners. If India wishes to be more explosive with the bat, they should consider the players selected in the squad, in the XI because they have been selected to fill the purpose. Maybe send Kishan or Pant as an opener to make sure that runs flow from one end while Rahul could take his time to settle. This move would have also allowed someone like a Suryakumar to play at five.

England opened their bowling with Rashid to the left-handed Dhawan which turned out to be a good move since the batsman was not quick to score runs and he has shown a bit of weakness against right arm spin in the past.

Soon, Jofra dismissed Rahul when he under edged one on to his stumps. In that particular over, you could see that the pitch was two-paced ( but a good batting track overall) as there was one delivery that hurried Virat on the glove and another delivery that came onto the bat slower than expected as Virat was early on the shot.

As Virat was dismissed by Rashid after he tried to hit one over mid-on but was unsuccessful, Rishabh came to the crease and started quick with his cut, flick and the reverse-lap off Jofra but wickets tumbled at the other end with Wood joining the party as well. At the end of the power play India were 22/3. Until the next few overs, India were cautious of not losing another wicket with Iyer and Rishabh as the last specialist batting pair on the crease. Iyer was timing the ball exquisitely well and that could be seen in his cuts especially behind point which were played without inviting much risk.

Next to depart was Rishabh when he holed one out to deep square leg, leaving India at 49/4 after 10 overs. Then came Hardik who looked comfort at the crease but played 21 deliveries for his 19 and just when Iyer started to go on the offensive, the middle-order batsman lost his wicket thanks to a brilliant catch by Malan running sideways from square leg. India then finished at 125/7.

England were in no mood to take their time as they raced to 50/0 after six overs as Butler and Roy went for the big hits against Axar. England lost two wickets before wrapping up the chase. The first wicket fell at 72 when Butler was trapped On the legs by Chahal and then at 89 when A returning-to-form Roy was dismissed by Sundar after reviewing an LBW decision.

India should have batted better but England came out with a plan to bowl short deliveries to the opposition batsmen which eventually paid off.

Brief scores :-

India 125/7 in 20 overs: Iyer 67 (48); Jofra 4-1-23-3.

England 130/2 in 15.2 overs: Roy 49 (32); Sundar 2.3-0-18-1.

Man-of-the-match : Jofra Archer

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