Hardik Pandya’s good all-round display gave India the higher hand within the first T20I in opposition to Jos Buttler’s India. No longer handiest did Hardik rating a half-century, but additionally picked 3 wickets.
Hardik Pandya celebrates a wicket in opposition to England. (Courtesy: Reuters)
HIGHLIGHTSHardik Pandya equipped the Indian innings with impetus as wickets fell at the different endIndia scored a complete of 198 runsHardik Pandya touched Yuvraj Singh in an extraordinary checklist of Indian cricketers
Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya reached the uncommon double of half-century and three-wickets in one T20I fit, changing into handiest the second one Indian participant to succeed in the report after Yuvraj Singh. The previous Indian cricketer used to be the primary Indian to the touch the original report in 2009/10 collection vs Sri Lanka, the place the left-hander entertained his house crowd at Mohali.
It took reasonably a while for any other Indian to achieve the feat, however it used to be in spite of everything controlled by way of Hardik Pandya, who has been in blistering shape since his go back into the cricketing fold, after a protracted fight with again damage.
After India selected to bat first within the opening T20I, Pandya scored a the most important half of century within the center order. His 51 off 33 balls, stored the workforce racing as the opposite batsmen stored getting out regardless of getting excellent begins. Partnering up with the likes of Suryakumar Yadav and Axar Patel, Pandya added fast runs to stay India’s threshold above 10 runs in keeping with over. On the time of having out, he had India at 180/6 in 18.4 overs.
India completed at 198/8 after their 20 overs and got here out to shield it with excellent zeal. Bhuvneshwar Kumar gave India an enormous step forward within the first over by way of taking the wicket of Jos Buttler however from there it used to be all about Hardik Pandya.
In his first over, he took two wickets, first by way of castling Dawid Malan and the manufacturing a most sensible edge from the damaging Liam Livingstone. If that used to be now not sufficient, Pandya disregarded Jason Roy as smartly,, who by no means reasonably were given going at the day.
With Hardik Pandya breaking the again of the English assault, the hosts by no means discovered the momentum to achieve the 199 goal, regardless of batting on an attractive deck at Southampton.
On the time of writing, half of the English facet had long past again house within the thirteenth over, and Moeen Ali used to be batting along newcomer Sam Curran.
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