England dominate India to win 1st T20I

England completely outplayed India in the 1st T20I to register a comprehensive victory by 8 wickets. Most of the damage was done with the ball as they skittled the Indian top order at the start with some searing pace from Jofra Archer and Mark Wood. India, on the other hand failed to get any rhythm going in their batting innings and registered a paltry total of 124. England chased down the total with relative ease with Jason Roy sending the ball to all parts of the ground with a well-made 49. 

After winning a crucial toss, England got off to a perfect start with the ball. After a tight first over from Adil Rashid, Jofra Archer was able to follow it up with the crucial wicket of KL Rahul from the other end. Unfortunately for the 67,000 fans in the stadium who came to see Virat Kohli bat, he didn’t last too long either and was dismissed for a duck as he mistimed a shot straight into the hands of Chris Jordan at mid-off.

In between the flurry of wickets, Rishabh Pant was able to provide some brief entertainment. He played an audacious reverse lap shot against Jofra Archer that flew over the slips for six just as he had done to James Anderson in the test match one week earlier. The joy for the hosts was short lived though as Shikhar Dhawan perished in the very next over to the pace of Mark Wood who clocked a top speed of 152 kmph in his spell.

India was able to consolidate with Shreyas Iyer and Pant and later Hardik Pandya but the English seamers in particular bowled immaculate lines and lengths that give very little away to the Indian batsman. Iyer was able to put on a fine half-century but had very little support from the others as India limped to a total of 124-7 in the 20 overs. The key destroyer with the ball was Jofra Archer who registered his best spell in T20I cricket with 3-23.

Just as they did with the ball, the English openers got off to a flying start with the bat. Jason Roy was struggling for form in the lead up to this series but played magnificently on the day. He went after India’s spinners, in particular, to help England to a score of 50-0 within the powerplay to seal the victory. Jonny Bairstow played a nice cameo as well at the end after his horror test series to take England home and give them a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.