Jason Roy and Jos Buttler came out all guns blazing against the Indian bowling attack to power England to a 8-wicket win against the hosts and take 1-0 lead in the five-match T20 series at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Friday.
Jason Roy (32-ball 49) top-scored with the bat for visitors and Jofra Archer (3/23) was awarded the Man of the Match for his remarkable bowling performance.
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Earlier, England had won the toss and opted to field first. A priceless 36-ball fifty from Shreyas Iyer (48-ball 67) propelled team India to 124/7 against England in their 20 overs.
India were completely rattled by the England bowlers who dismissed India's top-four batsmen - Shikhar Dhawan (4), Kl Rahul (1), Virat Kohli (0), Rishabh Pant (21) - within the first 10 overs.
Apart from Jason Roy, Jos Buttler contributed with 28 runs. David Malan remained unbeaten on 24 and Johnny Bairstow made 26 runs. David Malan hammered a huge six to help his team chase down the target in just the 15th over. For India, Yuzvendra Chahal and Washington Sundar bagged one wicket each.
India had a very poor start to their innings. India lost the wickets of their three leading batsmen Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli on a score of just 20. Skipper Virat Kohli returned to the pavilion for a duck after facing five balls.
After this, Rishabh Pant tried to steady India's innings with Shreyas Iyer. Pant, however, was dismissed after scoring 21 runs off 22 balls. India lost four wickets for just 48 runs in 10 overs. Shreyas Iyer played a hard-fought 67-run innings to propel India to 124 runs.
With this win, England have taken a 1-0 lead in the five-match T20 series. The second T20 match between India and England will be played at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on 14 March.