India vs England, 1st T20I: Eoin Morgan, Joe Root, and Bowlers Shine As England Draw First Blood
Jan 26, 2017 at 8:24 PM
Captain Eoin Morgan scored a fifty and Joe Root registered an unbeaten 46-runs to power England to seven wickets win in first of the three T20Is at Green Park Stadium in Kanpur. As a result, England took one nil lead.
Both the sides made a couple of changes from their last ODI squad, as for India off-spinner Parvez Rasool made his T20I debut, while for England exciting pace bowling sensation Tymal Mills and Chris Jordan entered the playing XI. India, who lost the toss, batted first on a slightly greener track.
As per the plan, England got rid off KL Rahul on eight, trapping him with a speedy bouncer from Chris Jordan. Opening alongside him Virat Kohli did put some ball out for a boundary but gave away his wicket to Moeen Ali on 29. Yuvraj Singh was next to go, as a mistime shot sent him packing for 12.
Raina, claimed to be India’s T20 batsman played some fancy shots, but couldn’t bat onto a yorker from Ben Stokes, which clipped his leg stump on 34. India, who dominated with the bat throughout in the series were dealt with a sudden blow. Adding woes to misery, hosts lost Manish Pandey and Hardik Pandya in quick succession. In no time, India was reduced to 118 for six.
Courtesy to MS Dhoni’s two superb strokes in the final over, India could manage to put up 147 for seven on the board. The former skipper remained unbeaten on 36, while Moeen Ali had two wickets to lead the bowling chart after the end of first innings.
In reply, England batsman Sam Billings cut lose and smoked 20 runs of Jasprit Bumrah’s first over. Roy, on the other hand, added some sixes to his tally before edging one on his stumps of Yuzvendra Chahal on 22. In the same over, the leggie clipped Billings off stump for 22. England after a good start was two down by the end of four overs.
Joined by Joe Root on the other side, Morgan helped his runs by putting four balls out of the park. His aggressive stint of 51 runs ended by debutant Parvez Rasool.
Joe Root escaped a wicket scare when he got out on a no-ball by Jasprit Bumrah. In the following over against Nehra, the Yorkshire batsman hammered two boundaries before completing the win in the first ball of 19th over. England outplayed India in the first T20I by seven wickets and 11 balls to spare.
Scoreline:
India – 147/7; Mahendra Singh Dhoni 36*(27), Suresh Raina 34(23), Moeen Ali 2/21.
England – 148/3; Eoin Morgan 51(38), Joe Root 46*(46), Yuzvendra Chahal 2/27.