England vs India: Hits and Misses: 1st ODI
The first match of the England vs India series saw India cruising past England and winning the match on a canter. It started with Virat Kohli winning the toss and putting England to bat.
English openers started well with Roy and Bairstow scoring 70 runs in the powerplay. It was again the magic of Kuldeep Yadav that derailed the England top order and ended up picking 6 wickets for just 25 runs.
For England, Butler and Stokes showed some resistance but couldn’t help England post a winning total as England bundled out for just 268 runs unable to play out even their 50 overs.
Dhawan started India’s reply with a quick fiery knock of 40 runs but was caught at point off Moeen Ali. After that, it was all about Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli who shared another century partnership between them. The partnership almost saw India through before Virat Kohli got stumped after scoring a classy knock of 75 runs.
From there on Rohit Sharma continued and steered India through with a very elegant and stylish century, thus gifting India a win with 59 balls to spare.
Amidst such a dominating performance by India, let us have a look at some of the hits and misses from the game.
#1 Hit: Kuldeep Yadav
It was again the mystery of Kuldeep Yadav, the young left-arm wrist spinner that continued to bamboozle the English batsman. Picking away 6 wickets in his 10 overs at the expense of just 25 runs, Kuldeep recorded the 4th best figures by an Indian in ODI cricket. It was also Kuldeep’s career-best figures.
England seemed to have no answers to this magical wrist spin as they seemed all at bay against it. They were going on nicely before the introduction of Kuldeep, but as soon as that happened the Englishmen lost their way.
The young wrist spinner immediately made his impact felt as he took 3 wickets in his first 2 overs. He later came on to dismiss the set batsmen in the form of Jos Butler and Ben Stokes and also ended up recording the best ODI figures by a spinner against England in England.
England needs to find a way to tackle this wrist spin magic otherwise the possibility of them winning this series seems bleak.