IND v ENG, 1st T20I Review: Moeen Ali, Morgan power England to comprehensive win

After winning the last and final One-dayer at the Eden Gardens, England began their T20I series on a winning note by defeating the Men in Blue by 7 wickets at Kanpur to go 1-0 up in the 3 match series. It was a great performance by the visitors in all three departments which helped them win their 2nd match of the tour. Riding on useful contributions by MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina and captain Virat Kohli India managed to post a below par 148 in their allotted 20 overs.

Yuzvendra Chahal bowled pretty well and took two wickets in his first over after the English openers smashed their way to 42 in the first 3 overs. Joe Root and Eoin Morgan revived the innings from there and took the visitors over the finishing line. While captain Morgan was dismissed after scoring a half-century, Joe Root remained unbeaten on 46.

Captain Eoin Morgan won the toss the put the hosts in. Debutant Tymal Mills started off proceedings and after bowling two good deliveries he was smashed through the point region by Virat Kohli which set things rolling for the hosts. Kohli’s opening partner KL Rahul also struck a backfoot punch in the next over which went for a boundary.

Rahul was undone by a brilliant bouncer from Chris Jordan. Rahul failed to time it and managed to top edge it straight to the short fine-leg fielder. Comeback man Suresh Raina joined Kohli in the middle and the southpaw began confidently with two boundaries. India lost Virat Kohli in the 8th over of the bowling of Moeen Ali. Kohli went for a slog sweep but was held out in the short mid-wicket region.

With the score at 55/2, Yuvraj Singh joined Raina in the middle but the former couldn’t get going and was dismissed cheaply after scoring only 12 of 12 balls. MS Dhoni was the next man in and after sharing a 20 runs partnership with Raina, the southpaw was dismissed after scoring 34 of 23 balls. His innings contained 4 fours and a solitary six.

MS Dhoni was unable to play the big shots and despite scoring 36 of 27 balls, his innings lacked the firepower which we generally associate Dhoni with especially in the death overs. India eventually managed 148 in their allotted 20 overs. Moeen Ali was the pick of the English bowlers 3ith two wickets to his name.

Chasing a modest total, England openers Jason Roy and Sam Billings began in a terrific fashion. After a quiet first over by Ashish Nehra, Sam Billings smashed Jasprit Bumrah for a couple of fours and sixes in the next over to start of the English charge. Roy struck Nehra for a huge six over the extra cover region and backed it up with another in the first delivery of the 4th over of Chahal. The young leg-spinner came back strongly and castled both the openers in the same over to reduce the visitors to 43/2 in the 4th over.

With two experienced guys Joe Root and Eoin Morgan in the middle, the visitors were still in the driver’s seat despite the fall of two wickets as their run-rate was over 12. Both the batsmen played out a few quite overs to bring back stability in the innings. England pressed on the accelerator in the 10th over by smashing Chahal for a six and a four.

Morgan again smashed a half tracker from Suresh Raina over the mid-wicket region for a big six and added a couple more in the following overs of Hardik Pandya and Parvez Rasool. Morgan was eventually dismissed by Rasool in the 16th over but not before taking England within striking distance of the target.

Root struck two boundaries in the 18th over of Nehra to bring down the calculation to 1 required off the last two overs and did the formalities in the next over of Jasprit Bumrah. The visitors will surely be proud of their performance, especially after a tough few months.

Brief Scores

India 147/7 in 20 overs (MS Dhoni 36, Suresh Raina 34, Moeen Ali 2/27

England 148/3 in 18.1 overs (Eoin Morgan 51, Joe Root 46*, Yuzvendra Chahal 2/27)

England won by 7 wickets (with 11 balls remaining)