Axar Patel’s all-round show and Shubman Gill’s 80 runs helped India defeat England by 6 wickets to take a 1-0 lead in the 3-match ODI series at Edgbaston. While stalwarts Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma failed to fire on their much-anticipated return in India colours, it was Patel and Gill who stole the show.
Gill could have gotten his 10th ODI century with the way he was batting but he was forced off the field when he was on 80 in what looked like cramps. After that, Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul both departed in the space of one over with India looking in a bit of a fix.
But from there, Axar and Gill’s replacement Washington Sundar took over, with both of them scoring half centuries as they guided India to a gritty win.
Earlier, the seasoned Joe Root and plucky Liam Dawson scored half-centuries in a gutsy seventh wicket stand for 121 runs as England posted a respectable 258 in the opening ODI despite Indian pace attack wreaking havoc.
From a solid 61 for no loss till the start of 13th over, England slumped to 107 for 6 before the end of the 22nd over and there seemed no chance of a recovery from that position. However, Root with a run-a-ball 76, fought well alongside Dawson, whose career-best 68 off 83 balls took them to a position where bowlers had a decent total to defend.
Root played the field, waited patiently for Bumrah to complete his first two spells and attacked Axar Patel (4/62), Prasidh Krishna once the pitch showed signs of easing out.
The best shot was a ramp off a Jasprit Bumrah bouncer. He hit six fours and a six in all. While the peerless Bumrah (1/31 in 9 overs) was the best Indian bowler in terms of skills and quality on display, young Gurnoor Brar (2/61 in 9 overs) and the usually profligate Prasidh (2/50 in 10 overs) also chipped in with wickets despite going for runs.
Axar ran through the tail after the Dawson-Root stand recording his best figures in ODI cricket.
