England vs India

'Kung-Fu Pandya'-Twitter goes berserk as Hardik Pandya's all-round show blows away England in the first T20I

Hardik Pandya helped India beat England in the first T20I at Southampton with his all round show as he scored his maiden fifty in T20Is.

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Akshay
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'Kung-Fu Pandya'-Twitter goes berserk as Hardik Pandya's all-round show blows away England in the first T20I

Hardik Pandya (Source: Twitter)

The first T20 of the three-match T20 series between India and England got underway in the Rosebowl, Southampton late at night on Thursday. Captain Rohit Sharma was finally back into the team after missing the rescheduled fifth Test due to Covid 19. India won the toss and decided to bat first. Arshdeep Singh was handed his debut cap by the Indian Team management.

Rohit started the innings positively and looked in good touch as he scored 5 boundaries in his innings before losing his wicket to Moeen Ali. Kishan failed to get going and lost his wicket trying to ‘up the ante’ against Moeen. The duo of Deepak Hooda and Suryakumar Yadav came together at the crease and scored quickfire 30s. All-rounder Hardik Pandya looked in fine touch as he brought up his maiden half-century in T20Is. He was dismissed for 51 off 33, including 6 fours and a six. Some useful cameos by Axar Patel and Dinesh Karthik got India to the total of 198 in their allotted 20 overs.

The England chase began in the worst-possible manner as Bhuvneshwar Kumar cleaned up the explosive Jos Buttler with a beautiful inswinger. Pandya shone brightly with the ball as well as he removed Liam Livingstone and David Malan in the same over. England suffered another big blow as Pandya removed the dangerous Jason Roy, who was struggling against the Indian seam attack. Roy had a forgettable outing in the middle as he was dismissed for 4 off 16 balls.

A 61-run partnership between Harry Brooks and Moeen helped England revive the innings but even they faltered after the duo couldn’t keep up with the required run rate. The England chase just couldn’t get going as India picked up wickets at regular intervals and emerged victorious. Hardik Pandya was the star of the show, who scored a 50 and picked up 4 wickets for 33 runs in his 4 overs. In the end, England fell short of 50 runs as debutant Arshdeep Singh and Yuzvendra Chahal also picked up 2 wickets each.

Here's how the twitter reacted to India's performance:

 

Hardik Pandya Arshdeep Singh Bhuvneshwar Kumar Rohit Sharma Yuzvendra Chahal India vs England Jos Buttler