Just looking at all the three skillsets and how convincing we gave me a lot of pleasure

What a resounding all-round performance it turned out to be from the Men in Blue as they registered a comprehensive victory by 8 wickets in the 1^st T20I against England to go 1-0 up in the 3 match series. There ere two special performances from the visitors. In the 1stt half, it was Kuldeep Yadav who tormented the English batters with his exceptional wrist spin bowling. In the 2^nd part, it was KL Rahul who struck a brilliant century and ensured India reached the required target without much fuss.

England got off to a brisk start after batting first. The opening duo of Jason Roy and Jos Buttler shared a 50 runs stand before Roy’s dismissal. Kuldeep Yadav came into the act in the middle overs and made difficult for the English batsmen. Alex Hales was unable to pick him and managed to score just 8 of 17 balls before he was castled by the chinaman bowler.

Kuldeep’s brilliant spell 

He came back strongly in his 3^rd over to bag 3 crucial wickets. Kuldeep returned with the wickets of Eoin Morgan, Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root in his 3^rd over. It was world class bowling . The Englishmen were totally outfoxed by Kuldeep. Jos Buttler struck a fluent 67 which ensured England reached a competitive total of 159.

The target wasn’t going to be enough for the star-studded Indian batting line-up. They didn’t begin well and lost the wicket of Shikhar Dhawan in the very first over. However, KL Rahul changed the complexion of the game from the moment he came into the crease. He kept smashing the English bowlers all around the park during his scintillating knock of 101 of a mere 54 deliveries. His innings was studded with 10 fours and 5 sixes.

Rahul shared a 123 runs partnership with Rohit Sharma. In the end, it was skipper Virat Kohli who accompanied Rahul as India reached the target in the penultimate over. Kohli smashed a huge six to finish off the proceedings for India.

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Here is what the winning skipper said at the post-match presentation

Just looking at all the three skillsets and how convincing we gave 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 3-40 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. 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.

Also Read: 5 Indian Players Who Shined on Their International Debut in England