- Dec 2, 2024
- Nov 17, 2022
The winning juggernaut of the Indian team under the reign of their new leader ‘Rohit Sharma’ continued on Thursday night. The men in blue thrashed England by 50 runs in the first of the three-match T20I series. Hardik Pandya was the star of the show as he put his all-around ability on display as he scored his maiden half-century in T20Is. Moreover, he also picked up four wickets to become the ‘thorn in England’s flesh’.
The fans were elated to see Rohit back in the team as he missed the rescheduled fifth Test against England last week as he got diagnosed with Covid 19.
This win was the 13th consecutive T20I win for India under Rohit’s captaincy making him the captain with the most consecutive wins in T20 internationals. He surpassed Afghanistan’s Asghar Afghan who had 12 successive wins under his belt. The star batter also became the third Indian to breach the 1000-run mark in T20I as captain of the side during the first T20I against England.
Team India is yet to lose a match under Rohit’s captaincy since he took the responsibility for full-time. The Mumbai skipper also has led his team to victory in 25 matches. This is from out of the 29 games he’s captained so far.
Earlier in the match, Team India posted 198 runs in the first innings courtesy of Pandya’s knock and quickfire thirties from Deepak Hooda and Suryakumar Yadav.
England’s chase began in the worst possible manner. Senior pacer Bhuvneshwar scalped the big wicket of skipper Jos Buttler with a beautiful inswinger. The Indian bowling attack was all over the English batsmen as they had the lethal weapon of swing working for them. Debutant Arshdeep Singh also impressed everyone with his variations in the first over itself. England lost four wickets in the first seven overs courtesy of a brilliant bowling spell by the Indian seamers. Pandya was the chief destroyer as he picked up 3 wickets in his first 2 overs.
England’s chase just couldn’t get going as they lost the match by 50 runs in the end. Debutant Arshdeep and Yuzvendra Chahal also picked up 2 wickets each.