England, after defeating India in the third and final ODI on Sunday, carried that momentum in the first T20 against India in Kanpur. They emerged victorious by seven wickets. With this, England have taken 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
India vs England T20 series schedule
It was an all-round display by the English bowlers and batsmen, which helped the Three Lions start the T20 series brightly. India's total of 147 runs on a good batting wicket was never going to be enough as the England batsmen reached the target in 18.1 overs, with Eoin Morgan and Joe Root shining with the willow to pick up a comfortable win.
England, while chasing 148 runs to win, got off to a brilliant start with both Jason Roy and Sam Billings hitting some quality boundaries to silence the home crowd. With pacers Ashish Nehra and Jasprit Bumrah failing to take early wickets, Virat Kohli brought Yuzvendra Chahal, who struck immediately with two wickets in his first over. The leggie dismissed both Roy ( 19, 11b, 0x4, 2x6)and Billings.
With two new batsmen – Eoin Morgan and Joe Root -- at the crease, England could afford to take it easy thanks to the sparkling start provided by their openers.
Morgan and Root took singles and hit occasional boundaries to strengthen England's position, and they were running well between the wickets as well. The two players were in control of the chase as they helped England get past 100 runs in the 13th over.
From there on, with Morgan and Root having got their eye in, England did not have much trouble to reach the target with the left-hander looking even more dangerous. Morgan (51, 38b, 1x4, 4x6) hit some lusty blows en route to his half-century, which brought the required run rate below six runs per over.
Though Parvez Rasool dismissed Morgan in his last over of the spell, it was too late as England already had the game in the bag with just 20 odd runs required. Root (46, 46b, 4x4) alongside Ben Stokes reached the target with 11 balls to spare.
Earlier, the India batsmen could not really get going. After England won the toss and asked India to bat, Kohli (29, 26b, 4x4) did start brightly with some wonderful boundaries. But India were not able to strike a good partnership, with KL Rahul, who had a poor ODI series as well, falling for just eight runs.
After the dismissal of Rahul, Suresh Raina (34, 23b, 4x4, 1x6) looked brilliant, hitting some wonderful fours and entertaining his home crowd. But the problem with the India batsmen was that they were not able to convert their starts into meaningful scores. Kohli and Raina were out for 29 and 34 runs respectively.
With the failure of Yuvraj Singh, Manish Pandey and Hardik Pandya, India were not able to score big runs, but former India skipper MS Dhoni's batting effort ( 36, 27b, 3x4) helped India score 147 runs.
One needs to congratulate English bowlers, who showed great discipline against the strong Indian batting line-up. Moeen Ali, who picked up two wickets, was pick of the bowlers alongside Tymal Mills and Chris Jordan.
Watch the highlights of the match HERE
Scorecard
India: 147/7 in 20 overs.
England: 148/3 in 18.1 overs
Match result: England win by seven wickets.
Series: England lead 1-0
Bowling
England:Tymal Mills 4-0-27-1, Chris Jordan 4-0-27-1, Liam Plunkett 4-0-32-0, Ben Stokes 4-0-37-1, Moeen Ali 4-0-21-2
India:Ashish Nehra 3-0-31-0, Jasprit Bumrah 3.1-0- 26-0, Chahal 4-0-27-2, Parvez Rasool 4-0-32-1, Suresh Raina 2-0-17-0, Hardik Pandya 2-0-12-0
Fall of wickets
India: 1-34, Rahul (4.3 ov); 2-55, Kohli, (7.1 ov); 3-75, Yuvraj Singh (10.1 ov); 4-95, Raina (12.3 ov); 5-98, Pandey, (13.2 ov); 6-118, Pandya (16.2 ov); 7-145 ,Parvez Rasool (19.4 ov)
England:1-42, Roy (3.2 ov); 2-43, Billings (3.5 ov); 3-126, Morgan (15.2 ov)
