Abhishek Sharma, spinners put England to sword at Eden

All-round show helps world champions India beat England comfortably by seven wickets with 43 balls to spare in first T20I at Kolkata

India made short work of the modest target that England could set at the Eden Gardens on Wednesday, going past the visitors’ below-par 132 in the 13th over with seven wickets to spare. Victory gave Suryakumar Yadav & Co a 1-0 lead in the five-match series. Abhishek Sharma hammered a 34-ball 79 that had five fours and a whopping eight sixes. Tilak Varma, in prolific form on the South Africa tour last November, played the second fiddle in a third-wicket partnership that produced 84 runs off 42 balls. Opener Sanju Samson had earlier provided the right start with a quickfire 26.

Abhishek Sharma during his 79 yesterday. Pic/AFP

Electing to bowl as the threat of heavy dew hung in the night sky, India kept the visitors down to a modest total. Jos Buttler fought a lone battle as wickets tumbled at regular intervals. The English skipper, whose last visit to the ground had seen an unbeaten century to give Rajasthan Royals victory from the jaws of defeat, scored 68 off 44 balls on Wednesday with only two others making double figures.

England lose quick wickets

The disappointment of some 50,000 at the Eden on seeing Mohammed Shami’s much-awaited return to international cricket after over a year postponed further was quickly forgotten as Arshdeep Singh, finding movement off the pitch and the occasional disconcerting bounce, made early inroads into the England innings with a wicket in each of his first two overs. It had him surpassing Yuzvendra Chahal’s 96 scalps to become India’s highest wicket-taker in T20Is. The left-arm pacer surprised Phil Salt in the third ball of the match to draw first blood and then removed Salt’s opening partner Ben Duckett. His opening spell read an impressive 3-0-10-2. 

Chakravarthy claims 3-23

Varun Chakravarthy, introduced in the final over of Powerplay, foxed the blossoming Harry Brook and Liam Livingstone with nicely-disguised off-spin deliveries in his second over, and it was all uphill from there. He would finish with three for 23 even as Axar Patel and Hardik Pandya snared a couple each. India began the chase in their now familiar ‘devil may care’ fashion. Sanju Samson, in terrific form over the past few months, played out a quiet first over from Jofra Archer before launching into Gus Atkinson and picking up 22 runs from the second. He didn’t last long and skipper Suryakumar Yadav too fell soon but Abhishek, Samson’s opening partner, kept the momentum going.

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