India blitz England led by Abhishek's superb hitting
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KOLKATA : Opener Abhishek Sharma's sensational power-hitting secured India's comprehensive seven-wicket victory against England in the opening T20 International at the Eden Gardens on Wednesday.
The left-hander clobbered eight sixes and five fours in his scintillating 79 off 34 balls as India chased down a modest 133-run target in 12.5 overs.
The visitors' skipper Jos Buttler struck 68 off 44 balls but England were all out for 132 in exactly 20 overs, which was never going to test the explosive batting lineup of T20 world champions India.
Left-arm seamer Arshdeep Singh gave India a strong start removing both England openers Phil Salt and Ben Duckett inside three overs after the home side elected to field.
Buttler counter-attacked, hitting Hardik Pandya for four fours in an over, throwing him out of the attack after the seamer's two expensive overs.
Varun Chakravarthy (3-23) was pressed into service instead and the lanky spinner dismissed Harry Brook and Liam Livingstone in the same over as England limped to 74-4 at the halfway stage of their innings.
Buttler raced to a 34-ball fifty before Chakravarthy dismissed him caught in the deep by a diving Nitish Kumar Reddy.
Left-arm spinner Axar Patel and seamer Pandya claimed two wickets apiece.
India looked in a hurry when they began their chase.
Sanju Samson milked 22 runs including four fours and a six off Gus Atkinson's first over, prompting Buttler to withdraw the bowler.
Jofra Archer dismissed Samson for 26 runs and India captain Suryakumar Yadav in the same over but boundaries kept flowing.
Abhishek hit Mark Wood for back-to-back sixes and meted out the same treatment to England spinner Adil Rashid en route to a 20-ball fifty.
Rashid spilled a return catch when Abhishek was on 29 and it proved costly as the opener stepped on the gas immediately after the reprieve.
Rashid eventually dismissed the opener in the 12th over but India comfortably prevailed in a match that marked the beginning of England's white-ball era under coach Brendon McCullum.
Chennai hosts the second T20 of the five-match series on Sunday.
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