Kuldeep Yadav tore through England’s batting lineup before KL Rahul struck a brilliant ton as India dismantled England by 8 wickets in the first T20I on Tuesday.
The chinaman spinner took a career-best 5 for 24, including three in an over, to derail England’s innings. The hosts were comfortably placed at 95 for 1 in the 12th over before Kuldeep began his demolition job. As a result, England lost their next four wickets for just 12 runs to found themselves reeling at 107 for 5. They eventually managed to post a modest 159 for 8. The only batsman to put up a fight was the in-form Jos Buttler, scoring 69 from 46 balls as the wickets fell around him.
In reply, Rahul starred with the bat. The in-form batsman smashed10 fours and five sixes, as India romped home with 10 balls to spare.
Put in to bat first, England made a typically quick start to their innings. Jason Roy came out all guns blazing to take 16 from the first two overs. Buttler, on the other hand, got off the mark by scooping a Umesh Yadav delivery behind the stumps. England raced away to 50 in the fifth over before Umesh Yadav ended the partnership when Roy (30) dragged one onto his stumps. And as Roy departed, England lost the momentum. New batsman Alex Hales struggled for any kind of fluency while Buttler did not get as much strike as he would have liked.
England found some momentum when Buttler took 14 from the first three balls of the 11th over, a huge six over deep square in between boundaries either side of the wicket bringing up a 29-ball fifty. However, India soon took command of the proceedings from the next over. Kuldeep ended Hales’ (8 off 18) painful stay at the crease. But it was Kuldeep’s following over that really did the damage.
Eoin Morgan (7) holed out to the first ball and after Buttler took a single. Jonny Bairstow (0) and Joe Root (0) were both completely bamboozled as they played forward and were stumped.
Moeen Ali (6) kept out the hat-trick ball but soon sliced one to mid-off, handing Hardik Pandya a wicket to leave the hosts reeling at 117 for 6.
Kuldeep went on to complete his maiden 5-wicket haul by taking the huge wicket of Buttler.
David Willey then played a fine cameo of 29* off 15 to help England go past 150. In the end, they had 159 runs to defend.
In reply, India were off to a poor start. Shikhar Dhawan departed in the very first over. However, it was not the precursor of the things that were to follow. Rahul and Rohit Sharma added 123 runs for the second wicket to all but seal the hosts’ fate.
Adil Rashid eventually broke the stand when Rohit (32) drove straight into the hands of Morgan at covers. With the game now almost in the bag, Rahul and Virat Kohli took their time. In the meantime, Rahul brought up his hundred from 53 balls. Kohli then sealed the game by launching Ali for a six over long on.
India will now be looking to seal the series in Cardiff on Friday.
Brief scores: England 159/8 in 20 overs (Jos Buttler 69; Kuldeep Yadav 5-24) lost to India 163/2 in 18.2 overs (KL Rahul 101*, Rohit Sharma 32; Adil Rashid 1-25) by eight wickets.