England vs India, 2018: 1st T20I – Who Said What

After the end of the first T20I in Manchester, Team India and their fans would be thinking what was all this hype around England and their run limited-overs cricket? Skipper Virat Kohli won the toss and asked the hosts to bat first, things changed completely once the spinners were in force. Then, KL Rahul just took the game away from England and in the end, it proved to be a pretty easy victory for the Men in Blue.

English openers Jos Buttler and Jason Roy got them off to a flying start. They enjoyed batting against the pace of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umesh Yadav. That’s why Kohli brought spin in the 4th over. Yuzvendra Chahal was expensive and it was Buttler who dealt with the Indian bowlers just how he was expected to as a result England were 95/2.

Kuldeep in his second over hit Alex Hales’ stumps and that was the first of plenty to come for him this game. It was the left-arm wrist spinner’s third over that changed the complexion of the game and pushed it in Team India’s favour. England had 106 runs on the board for the loss of 2 wickets with Buttler and Eoin Morgan at the crease. Kuldeep then struck thrice in his third over and wickets just seemed to tumble.

In his last over, the wrist spinner got rid of Buttler and that was the wicket India needed. England, as a result, could only post 159 runs on the board for the loss of 8 wickets. Kuldeep finished with a five-wicket haul, his first in T20I cricket.

The target wasn’t daunting by any stretch of the imagination but the Indian batters had to do well to get there. Shikhar Dhawan was dismissed early but then Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul had a 123-run stand for the second wicket. Rahul, in particular, was severe and made life tough for the English bowlers. He hit them all, pacers and spinners alike. The best part of his knock was the fact that he didn’t just get a hundred, his second in the format but also stood there till the end and took the team home.

Team India won the match by 8 wickets and with 10 balls to spare.

Indian captain Virat Kohli said:

Just looking at all the three skillsets and how convincing we were gives me a lot of pleasure. We are shuffling around keeping the World Cup in mind and that’s why KL went in at three and I went in at four. Kuldeep is a wrist spinner, he’s going to be lethal with any help from the pitch. He’s very difficult to pick and his wrong ‘un is very good and I hope he can keep working on it.

At the toss, I didn’t think the wicket wouldn’t change much, but we were lucky to keep them down to 30-40 runs short. Rahul has come a long way; especially the way he’s been batting since the IPL and in that one game in Ireland. We don’t want to be one-dimensional, we want people going up and down the order. He’s very hungry and today he was a bit emotional because the last century he scored was against England in Chennai and it’s been that long he’s been waiting for.

I usually bat at three and have dropped to four, but this allows me to control the game in the middle-overs. We want our cricketers to be fearless, express themselves just like what Kuldeep did today. It may not work out well every time but we need to stick to it.

(On being pumped up on the field) We dropped Jos and it was a moment where I felt we needed to hold on to everything. I can’t be someone who’s standing on the field doing nothing, I need to be pumped up when I am playing for the country and sometimes that boils over.

Man of the Match, Kuldeep Yadav said:

It is my first tour of England and things are going really well. The conditions are prefect, felt like home. The wicket was dry and that’s why I stuck to my line and length. It’s important that when you bowl a wrong ‘un it has to be in the perfect area.

Obviously when you have two legends (on Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni) you need to take all the advice you can. Things are going well and hopefully I’d like to take it into the next match.

England captain Eoin Morgan said:

I think thoroughly deserved for India. Jos Buttler and Jason Roy got off to a fantastic start, but three wickets in the middle set us back and we never really gained momentum back from there. And then when a guy like KL Rahul gets going, he’s difficult to stop. Kuldeep is a terrific bowler.

When the wicket is that good you have to take your options, but need to be better at that. We needed to take every half chance possible, but we didn’t and then defending 160 was always going to be difficult. Today was a tough game for our spinners, but India played well today and it just wasn’t our day. We talk about the crowds everytime before an India or a Pakistan game, the football too is going on and it is a big factor.

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