Three wickets in an over from Kuldeep Yadav and a century from Lokesh Rahul powered India to victory over India in their first Twenty20
Related: England’s white-ball run comes to a halt as India win by eight wickets
And with that, I’m gone. It’s been an excellent start to the series. Match two is on Friday. Don’t miss it (unless you’d prefer to watch the football). Bye!
And so does Virat Kohli:
Looking at the three skillsets, how successful we were in all three, gives me a lot of pleasure. To show composure – they got off to a flyer, to bring the game back from there was all because of Kuldeep’s one over. He’s a wrist-spinner, he’s going to be effective on any pitch. With a bit of assistance he becomes even more dangerous. He’s really worked on his skillsets. I thought with the start they got they were going to get close to 190, 200, and that would be a very competitive total. But [in the end] the odds were going to be stacked in favour of our team.
Eoin Morgan speaks:
I think thoroughly deserved. India played well. The best part of our game was the start. Conditions were pretty good. They fought back pretty well, taking three wickets in an over really set us back quite a bit and we never regained momentum from then. It probably cost us 30-40 runs, which inevitably cost us.
Kuldeep’s a very good bowler. He’s obviously going to be a big threat. Everything seemed to happen very quickly, which is a credit to the bowling as well. It’s something we’ll assess before the next game and hopefully play it better.
A great innings from Rahul, some great bowling from Kuldeep Yadav, and England were second best in every way.
On the plus side, England’s football team have given me another half an hour’s football to watch.
18.2 overs: India 163-2 (Rahul 101, Kohli 20) It’s all over! Ali’s first delivery brings a Rahul single, and Kohli slams his second down the ground for a match-winning six!
18th over: India 156-2 (Rahul 100, Kohli 14) That’s a delicious shot from Rahul, who just flicks a full delivery from Willey away for an apparently effortless four. And then he works the final ball of the over for a simple single, to bring up his century! It’s been fabulously controlled. India need four runs from 12 balls.
17th over: India 146-2 (Rahul 94, Kohli 10) Listen boys, can you just knock these off? Some of us have the last five minutes of a football match to watch. Kohli slaps the ball straight to Morgan. It flies to him on the bounce and at enormous pace, and that had to sting, but the England captain hardly winces.
2000+ runs in T20I cricket...
2271 - Martin Guptill in 73 inns
2140 - Brendon McCullum in 70 inns
2000* - Virat Kohli in 56 inns #EngvInd
16th over: India 142-2 (Rahul 93, Kohli 8) Willey’s back, and India’s diet of singles continues. They are tiptoeing their way to their total. They need 18 to win, from 24 balls.
15th over: India 137-2 (Rahul 91, Kohli 5) Rashid finishes his allocation, and his second two overs were much better than his first two.
14th over: India 134-2 (Rahul 90, Kohli 3) Another run-light over, from Jordan this time, though India have little need to hurry at the moment. Or do they?
The ball flicked his forearm, well clear of the glove.
England thought he nicked it, the umpire didn’t. Let’s see!
13th over: India 131-2 (Rahul 88, Kohli 1) Back to spin, because, well, whatever, and the move brings three runs and a wicket. “Impressive crowd for a T20 especially considering,” writes Ravi Raman. “Looks like the reports of cricket’s demise in England were overstated.” It sounds like there are a lot of Indians in the crowd, for whom the World Cup may hold less of an attraction, but yes, I believe any reports have been overstated. For now.
Rohit Sharma swings his shoulders and picks out the England captain at extra cover!
12th over: India 128-1 (Rohit 31, Rahul 88) Jordan bowls short, and it flicks the underside of Rahul’s arm and deflects into his chest. That looked deeply unpleasant. He recovers fast, though, and his flick to deep square leg is brilliantly stopped on the rope by Willey.
11th over: India 123-1 (Rohit 29, Rahul 85) With their spinners struggling, England go back to Plunkett. And that works well! Rahul nonchalantly flicks the ball away with his wrists for a fabulous six, follows it by lifting over cover for four pulling for four more, and then ends the over with another wild maximum. Fabulous batsmanship. It’s an onslaught of batting brilliance, and England have no answers. Twenty runs off the over, and India are cantering.
10th over: India 103-1 (Rohit 29, Rahul 65) Moeen continues, and Rahul reverse-sweeps perfectly between two fielders for four, and then cowabungas down the ground for a superlative six. India are racing and roaring here.
9th over: India 89-1 (Rohit 27, Rahul 53) Rashid’s long-hop is deposited way over cow corner for six by Rohit, and that is huge! Then Rahul reaches his half-century off the final delivery, tickled delicately away for four, another lovely shot. The required run rate is down below seven now, and still dropping.
8th over: India 76-1 (Rohit 19, Rahul 48) Now Moeen Ali comes on, and he gets the treatment! His first ball is cut for four, and his second is hit down the ground for six, even if it was only just out of Chris Jordan’s reach. It actually went into tje fielder’s hands, and if the rope was a few yards further away he would almost certainly have caught it. But it wasn’t, so.
7th over: India 60-1 (Rohit 18, Rahul 33) England’s wrist-spinner, Adil Rashid, tries to emulate his wicket-accumulating India counterpart. His first five deliveries bring just two runs, but then Rohit Sharma cuts the last for four.
6th over: India 54-1 (Rohit 13, Rahul 32) Plunkett varies his pace, and slows down the scoring a bit. There’s still one boundary, hooked away by Rahul for four.
5th over: India 48-1 (Rohit 12, Rahul 27) Sharma hits into the ground, and the ball bounces over the fielder at point and away for four. Then Rohit dances down the pitch, wildly swings and bottom-edges just past the stumps. His swing was so wild that it seemed to strain his elbow, and he drops his bat, winces for a while, collects himself, goes back to his crease and bashes the next ball away for four.
4th over: India 38-1 (Rohit 3, Rahul 26) The football’s terribly tense, isn’t it? Anyway, Plunkett has a bowl, and after four decent deliveries (and a wide) it goes a bit downhill: Rahul tickles down leg side for four, and then flays past point for four more.
3rd over: India 26-1 (Rohit 1, Rahul 17) Sharma goes for a stroll down the pitch and the ball thumps him in the pad, but it looked to be going down leg. Then Rahul drives wide of cover, a lovely shot rewarded with four runs. Last ball is sliced to backward point, where it flies into Roy’s hands, about shin height, and flies back out of them again!
2nd over: India 17-1 (Rohit 1, Rahul 10) Jordan bowls wide, and Rahul slaps the ball high over cover for six! Then he bowls straight, and Rahul cips it off his pads and through midwicket for what looks all the world like a four until Willey excellently fields it, inches from the rope. And then he bowls short, and Sharma doesn’t get any bat on it.
1st over: India 8-1 (Rohit 1, Rahul 1) Dhawan edges the first ball of the innings just past a diving slip and away for four, and the fifth ball of the innings into his own stumps. Both quite ugly shots, all flailing bat and still feet. Willey getting some eye-catching swing with his first over.
Shikhar Dhawan edges into his stumps, and England have one of those early wickets they were after!
Out come the players. India’s bowlers have set the stage, but with a few early wickets England’s total might prove testy. Time for action.
India need 160 runs to win, so precisely eight an over will do it. Kuldeep Yadav, the man of the half-match award in his pocket, has a quick chat on his way off:
Obviously it’s a great feeling to be the pick of the bowlers. If you’re bowling in the right areas, and you mix up the pace, it’s very difficult for the batsmen to hit against you, and that’s what I do.
20th over: England 159-8 (Willey 29, Plunkett 3) Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowls the final over, and the batsmen take turns to mistime shots. The bowler gets a few thing wrong as well: his fourth delivery is wild and wide, and Willey has a massive comic swing and still gets nowhere near it, and then he follows that with another wide. With his assistance England get eight runs from the final over. Advantage India.
19th over: England 151-8 (Willey 25, Plunkett 1) Umesh bowls, full and straight three times. Willey gets a single off the second, and the third swings late, and this movement and some bad luck does for Jordan. Meanwhile, it’s kicked off in Moscow!
That’s an odd one! Jordan inside-edges into his pad, and it rebounds into the air and into the path of the bowler.
18th over: England 148-7 (Willey 23, Jordan 0) Kuldeep returns for his final over, in search of his first T20 five-for. And he should have it! Buttler scoops it into the air, Rahul runs back from mid-off, Dhawan runs forward from long off, neither of them fully commit and the ball goes down. And then he does have it, as Buttler mistimes another heave, and Kohli takes the catch. Kuldeep has been fabulous here. Willey does hit him for six, but it’s the bowler’s day.
It’s a five-for! Buttler hits high towards long on but doesn’t get anywhere near enough on it, and Virat Kohli collects!
17th over: England 137-6 (Buttler 65, Willey 16) Bhuvi Kumar returns, and Willey leans back to flick the first ball over his right shoulder for six! Then he drives through cover, beautifully splitting the field, for four, and flicks straight to the fielder at short fine leg, Chahal, who completely misses it – four more! Then a wide, and another wide, and a couple of leg byes. Twenty off the over, and boy did England need that!
Months ago, I fancied a motorbike ride up to Stratford upon Avon to review a new musical about Joan Littlewood - right in my hitting zone usually @Simon_Burnton. And it's lovely here too. But did it have to be tonight...
16th over: England 117-6 (Buttler 65, Willey 0) Pandya’s final over. Ali slaps past square leg for four, and then slams a lovely shot straight to the fielder at extra cover, and then gets out. Can Buttler dig England out of this hole? England’s run tap has been turned emphatically off.
Kuldeep Yadav is the first bowler to get two batsmen stumped for ducks off successive deliveries in T20Is. #EngvInd
Moeen Ali gets that all wrong, and scoops the ball off the end of his bat and straight to mid-off!
15th over: England 112-5 (Buttler 63, Ali 1) India’s tails aren’t just up, they’re up somewhere in near-planetary orbit. Three runs off Umesh Yadav’s over.
14th over: England 109-5 (Buttler 62, Ali 1) What an over! Three runs, and three wickets! It goes without saying that Kuldeep has been the pick of the bowlers so far. Tricky, testy, a little mischievous, and England just don’t know what to do about it.
If you're bringing up your fifty, this. is. how. you. do. it.
Special
FOLLOW LIVE: https://t.co/uhzzmEPIFb#ENGvINDpic.twitter.com/T4VCgbOb0O
Another one! Root misjudges his first ball and so does Dhoni, missing it with his gloves. He catches it with his chin, though, from where it plops into his gloves and Root still hasn’t turned around when he takes off the bails!
Kuldeep gets some serious spin on that one, it’s enough to take it past the bat and Dhoni does the business behind the stumps!
Morgan sweeps and the ball flies off the toe of the bat high in the air and straight to his opposite number, who calmly completes the catch!
13th over: England 106-2 (Buttler 60, Morgan 7) Chahal’s final over starts with a Morgan single and continues cautiously, the bowler sending the ball down slow and wide – too wide on one occasion, close on a couple of others – and yields just seven.
Hales' scratchy innings was the slowest he's batted of 18 balls or more. He played and missed four times, edged the ball twice and mis-timed three shots. #EngvInd
12th over: England 100-2 (Buttler 59, Morgan 3) Kuldeep keeps bowling slowly, and Hales keeps scoring slowly, until he attempts a slog sweep and misses it. It had been coming. Morgan tickles his first delivery fine towards third man and it seems to get quicker as it goes, eventually being stopped just before the rope.
@Simon_Burnton Buttler is so full of confidence I fear for the drinks break. He might convert the water into wine.
Hales’ innings never really got going and now he’s gone, bowled round his legs for a slowly-compiled eight!
11th over: England 95-1 (Buttler 57, Hales 8)Another half-century for Buttler! Hardeep bowls, and Buttler hits his first ball to exactly the same spot as he hit the opening delivery of the previous over, just beyond the reach of a diving fielder. The next ball is hammered over deep square leg for a monstrous, fabulous six, and the third splits mid-off and extra cover for four more.
10th over: England 77-1 (Buttler 42, Hales 5) Kuldeep Yadav bowls, and Buttler caresses the first ball through midwicket for four. It’s the start of an intriguing battle, Kuldeep varying his pace between slow and slower, twice pulling out of his delivery to keep tabs on what the batsman is up to, and forcing Buttler to rein himself back. From that start, five off the over is impressive.
In an unwatched corner, Jos Buttler continues his futile assault on the Sports Personality of the Year award
9th over: England 72-1 (Buttler 37, Hales 5) Hales drives Chahal handsomely back over his head, completing his follow-through in textbook fashion, the only problem being that he made absolutely no contact with the ball. Buttler then reverse-sweeps, not a risk-free shot with two fielders lurking in that direction, but he hits it perfectly between them for four.
Tim Sanders has a theory about the cricket/football fixture clash: “The only possible explanation is that they’re looking towards the End-Of-Year sports quizzes, and trying to make sure that there are three former team-mates from the Leeds United academy on the field for England at the same time: Fabian Delph, Danny Rose and Jonny Bairstow,” he suggests. “On Sunday 24 June, Gareth Southgate was half an hour late bringing on Danny Rose v Panama, or Jonny needed to stick around for a bit longer after opening the batting. So tonight, we go again …”
8th over: England 66-1 (Buttler 32, Hales 4) Hardik bowls, and Buttler strolls way wide of off stump to flick the ball behind him, a ludicrous shot that he doesn’t quite time and yields only a single. It’s a good over, full of changes of pace and length, but then the last ball is a full toss and Buttler whips it away for four.
7th over: England 59-1 (Buttler 27, Hales 2) The ball is spinning away from the middle of the bat, and England nick and toe-end their way to four singles before Buttler hits the last ball to deep point. There’s a misfield and the fielders take a risky second, which they only just get away with.
6th over: England 53-1 (Buttler 23, Hales 0) Another bowling change, Hardik Pandya coming on, and he looks fast. Buttler gets a two and a single from the first two deliveries, and when Hales faces his first ball it hits him on the inner thigh. It looks painful, and from there Hales doesn’t quite judge any of his shots, all of which bounce straight to fielders. Just three off the over!
5th over: England 50-1 (Buttler 20, Hales 0) Umesh returns after a swift change of ends, and after Roy gets a single Buttler’s barrage continues. He picks up a slow ball and thumps it over the bowler’s head for four, and then he tries a pull and top-edges it high into the air! A wicket looks certain, but Chahal reacts slowly, and gets nowhere near it. It’s celebration delayed, though: the batsmen run a single, and Roy goes next ball.
As he strolls off the umpires try to check where the bowler’s front foot landed, but no replay is forthcoming. Roy lingers on the edge of the field for an age, before his dismissal is finally confirmed.
Roy has another swing, and this time he edges into his stumps!
4th over: England 44-0 (Roy 29, Buttler 15) India switch to spin, and Yuzvendra Chahal, who has his head in his hands after Roy reverse sweeps his second delivery for four. There’s more punishment to come when Buttler gets on strike, and thwacks down the ground for six and slashes through the covers for four.
3rd over: England 28-0 (Roy 24, Buttler 4) Roy swings at Kumar’s first ball, as he had Yadav’s first the previous over, and again misses it completely. And then he does it again next ball! The third ball is pushed with two straight arms over midwicket with no great force; it plops down and rolls to Kohli, running round. Roy gets his next shot wrong as well, but the ball flies off his edge, high over shor third man and away for four. Buttler has only faced three of the first 18 deliveries.
2nd over: England 20-0 (Roy 16, Buttler 4) Umesh Yadav bowls from the other end, and his first delivery flies at 85mph straight past Roy, whose big swing is mistimed. There’s no problem with his timing from the next ball, which is cracked past cover for four. And then Buttler paddles the last ball, full and 87mph, over his shoulder for four, the ball landing a foot or so in front of the rope. Fantastic shot.
This is a handy visualisation of which bowlers might expect to thrive, or indeed flop, against which England batsmen.
Kohli's bowling options as shown on @SkyCricket:
He might be tempted to turn to Chahal early on against Roy and Buttler, given their preference for pace on the ball #EngvIndpic.twitter.com/bv8VoPdGp8
What on earth is that captaincy grid thing? Rubik's Cube?
1st over: England 11-0 (Roy 11, Buttler 0) Bhuvneshwar Kumar gets us started, and Roy works him square for four, the ball giving hope to three different fielders but trundling just out of reach and all the way to the rope. Next ball he strolls across the line of the ball and clips it high over square leg, and nobody’s even getting close to that one.
The players are on their way out. There’s a giant St George’s Cross in the stands. The sun is shining, and fireworks are firing. Game on! Well, nearly.
Some pre-match reading here – this week’s Spin, from Tanya Aldred:
Related: England's dry spell puts the heat on cricket groundskeepers | Tanya Aldred
Eoin Morgan would also have bowled first, had he won the toss. England are unchanged from the team that beat Australia last week.
I think the summer’s been pretty good. As we evolved in the ODI series against Australia we got better. India poses a very different challenge, and we’ll have to be at our best to beat them.
Virat Kohli says:
The weather’s been brilliant. The guys are keen and ready to go. Everyone’s in a great frame of mind and looking to have a good time. The guys are playing positive cricket, they’re expressing themselves. We’ve come here to have some fun, play fearless cricket, and have a good competition against a very good side.
Time for the toss: India win it, and will bowl first.
Some early team news, of particular interest to the Curran family: Tom Curran has been ruled out of the T20 series through injury, and Sam Curran has replaced him.
Hello world!
So we have a sporting fixture clash, which is a little irritating. The ECB have known since approximately 1930 that there would be a World Cup this summer. Its schedule was finalised and released in July 2015, three bally years ago, and the draw held last December. For seven months they have known the dates of England’s group games, and of their likely knockout ties. There were only two days when England might have played in the Round of 16. Tonight England play simultaneously in the World Cup, and against India at Old Trafford.
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