India beat England by 50 runs in first T20

A thrilling 50-run win for India in the first T20 against England. Chasing the target of 199 runs set by India, England’s battle ended on 148 runs. All-rounder Hardik Pandya became India’s hero with his maiden T20I half-century and four wickets.

Indian captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to bat first in the match at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Southampton. Hardik Pandya has shown a brilliant performance with bat and bowl. Pandya (51 off 33 balls), Suryakumar Yadav (39), Deepak Hooda (33), Rohit Sharma (24), Axar Patel (17) and Dinesh Karthik (11) led India to a fighting total of 198.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Arshadeep Singh’s excellent swing literally destroyed the English batting line-up from the start of the innings. Chahal and Arshadeep took two wickets for India while Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Harshal Patel took one each.

Moeen Ali (36 runs) was the top scorer in a match where all the top order batters of England failed to perform. Chris Jordan scored 26 runs and Dawid Malan scored 21 runs. Jordan and Ali took two wickets each.

While Rohit returned as the captain, Kerala player Sanju Samson was dropped from the final eleven. IPL star Arshadeep Singh made a brilliant debut for India with a maiden over. Rohit also created the record of becoming the first captain to win 13 consecutive T20I matches.

In the second match on Saturday, there may be some changes in the team with some senior players returning. Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja, Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant will join the team. Virat Kohli is likely to open with Rohit in place of Ishan Kishan, with Deepak Hooda tipped to remain at no. 3. Jadeja may replace Axar Patel in tomorrow’s match.