England did very little wrong in the opening T/20 against India in Ahmedabad and cruised to an eight-wicket win. The bowlers did the bulk of the work to restrict a powerful Indian batting unit to just 124, with the bowlers bowling beautifully upfront. Their openers’ 72-run stand propelled them towards the target and in the end, England completed the chase in 15.3 overs on Friday (12).
It was quite surprising after the toss as to why England opted to play just one spinner in Adil Rashid and leave out Moeen Ali. It was obvious soon enough as England’s fast bowlers blew away India with searing pace. Mark Wood, who was brought in for Moeen not just bowled high speeds, but held his line beautifully, continuing from his good summer. Jofra Archer gave England the early breakthrough, knocking KL Rahul over, consistently bowled in the late 140s and extracting some extra bounce. Sam Curran and Chris Jordan mixed it up with the slower balls as India’s batsmen were finding it very difficult to get them away.
Shikhar Dhawan and Rahul were both playing a T20I after their one in Sydney against Australia on December 8. The rust was apparent, and with the English pacers hitting the deck hard and 140kph bullets bolting towards them, they didn’t last long as India found themselves reduced to 20 for 3 in the fifth over.
Rishabh Pant kept the crowd on their toes for a bit as he looked like he would break India out of the pacers’ woven web. A reverse sweep against Archer and some good wrist play next ball through square leg had the crowds in a frenzy.
However, it was Shreyas Iyer who revived the innings with a calm head after Pant fell, playing traditional cricketing shots, not trying anything fancy, and kept England at bay to stem the fall of wickets. Iyer and Hardik Pandya found the boundaries occasionally but more importantly, added 54 runs together.
England as opposed to India given the start Jason Roy and Jos Buttler got them off to 50 for 0 in six overs. Roy played the role of the aggressor, while Jos Buttler took his time to settle in before timing the ball beautifully in his 24-ball stay before departing for 28 playing for the turn against Yuzvendra Chahal. Roy, meanwhile, attacked the spinners, using his feet, giving himself room and found the ropes comfortably.
It was Chahal who broke the 72-run opening stand, trapping Buttler leg before. Roy slowed down a tad after that but the cushion of those early runs helped England. Washington Sundar then struck with the first ball of his spell, trapping Roy, who fell for 49, having struck three sixes and four fours.
Jonny Bairstow and Dawid Malan shared an unbeaten 41-run stand for the third wicket to ensure no further damage was done. Bairstow struck some mighty blows, keen on turning around his form from the Tests in his unbeaten 26-run knock. England lead the five-match series 1-0.
Scores:
India: 124/7 in 20 overs
(Rishabh Pant 21, Shreyas Iyer 67, J. Archer 3/23)
England: 130 for 2 in 15.3 overs
(Jason Roy 49, Jos Buttler 28, Dawid Malan 24 n.o. Jonny Bairstow 26 n.o.)