The Report by Sidharth Monga
A long tour of England can bring contingencies, and India responded gloriously to the first of those to maintain their clean sheet in T20I bilateral series of three matches. Central to India’s win was a man who might yet have to play a big part in the rest of the summer: all-rounder Hardik Pandya stepped up with India missing two of their first-choice quicks to injury and dropping Kuldeep Yadav, who had taken five wickets two matches ago, because of the small straight boundaries.
Pandya bowled smartly, not giving England anything to drive and changing his pace often in his personal best analysis of 4 for 38, reducing a marauding England batting to 198 when they had looked good for 225. He was there with centurion Rohit Sharma when India needed to pull themselves out of a brief slowdown when the 15th and 16th over produced seven runs and the wicket of Virat Kohli. Pandya’s 33 off 14 took off any pressure that might have been on his Mumbai Indians’ team-mate as India chased the target down with more than an over to spare.
Summarized scores: India 201 for 3 (Rohit 100*, Kohli 43) beat England 198 for 9 (Roy 67, Pandya 4-38) by seven wickets