Debutants, Dhawan hand India victory in the 1st ODI

India bucked the trend of losing the first game of each series as they managed to defend their total of 317 to win the 1st ODI against England in Pune. It was the two debutants once again who starred for India as they looked completely unfazed on the biggest stage. An emotional Krunal Pandya completely changed the momentum with the bat and scored 58 off 31 deliveries which included the the fastest half-century by a debutant in One Day Internationals. With the ball, Prasidh Krishna registered the best figures by an Indian on debut in ODI’s as he took 4-54 including the crucial breakthrough of England’s opening partnership.

India’s bowlers made a sharp comeback with the ball after England reached 135 in only 14 overs on the back of Jonny Bairstow’s excellent innings. England’s last 9 wickets fell for only 114 runs and they eventually ran out of steam and lost the game by 66 runs.

Earlier in the day, India made quite an attritional start to their batting innings as the openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan looked to see out the opening spell from Mark Wood and Sam Curran who were bowling test match lines. England were able to restrict India to only 39 runs in the powerplay and also pick the wicket of Rohit Sharma soon after as well as he chased a wide Ben Stokes delivery that caught a nick. Kohli’s introduction at the crease however picked up the scoring rate for India and he was able to put on a brisk 100 run partnership with Shikhar Dhawan as they attacked the English spinners through the middle overs.

Kohli eventually holed out to Moeen Ali in the deep for 56 which triggered a mini-collapse for the Indians. Iyer and Hardik Pandya fell for single digits and Shikhar Dhawan was dismissed on 98 to leave India in a tricky position at 205-5. The innings was eventually rescued by a stunning partnership from Krunal Pandya and KL Rahul who both scored half-centuries as they took India to a total of 317 after scoring 67 runs in the last 5 overs.

However, that target of 317 looked under par as the English openers were batting. Jonny Bairstow and Jason Roy played some sublime strokes as they gave England a lightning start in the powerplay. Bairstow, in particular, was sending the ball over the ropes for fun and hit seven sixes in his innings of 94. England threatened to take the match away from the hosts in the opening stages of their batting innings but India finally managed to get the crucial breakthrough of Jason Roy to get a sniff in the game. Soon after the loss of Roy and Stokes, the game turned on its head in a matter of two overs from Shardul Thakur. Thakur – the man with the golden arm – picked up the prized wickets of Bairstow, Morgan and Buttler in consecutive overs to leave England reeling at 176-5. From then on, England couldn’t stem the flow of wickets couldn’t be stemmed and India eventually bowled the visitors out for 251 to take a resounding 1-0 lead in the series.