On a day that belonged to Hardik Pandya, India defeated England by 50 runs to gain the early bragging rights and win the first T20I in Southampton.
India won the toss, and Rohit Sharma opted to bat first. Batting first, India employed a brand new attacking approach to catch England off guard.
The tone was set by the skipper himself, as he raced away to 24 runs off just 14 deliveries. Hooda and Suryakumar followed suit as both of them played with a strike rate in excess of 150 and scored 33(17) and 39(19) respectively.
Hardik then came in at number 5 after India lost Deepak Hooda, and the score read 89/3. Instead of consolidating the innings, he started smacking the bowlers all around the park and got to his fifty in 30 balls. Powered by his fifty, India put up a mammoth 198 on board.
Chasing 199, Kumar opened the attack for India and dished out a couple of out-swingers to Roy. When Buttler came on strike on the fifth ball of the over, Kumar bowled a booming inswinger and sent Buttler, who was arguably the most inform and dangerous English batter of the lot, packing.
With the ball in hand, Hardik Pandya first came into the attack in the fourth over and sent both Malan and Livingstone packing, essentially taking the steam out of England's chase.
He later came back to get Curran and Roy out and ended with the figures of 4-4-32. He also became the only Indian player in the T20 format to score a fifty and take a four-wicket haul.
England was eventually folded for just 148 and lost the match by 50 runs. The 2nd T20 is scheduled to be played on July 9 in Birmingham. With the likes of Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, and Jadeja set to return, the team management will have to make some tough decisions.
