India vs England 2021, 1st ODI – Who Said What?

Team India continued their winning momentum as they clinched the first One Day International of the three-match series against England by 66 runs. It was a debutants day as Krunal Pandya ruled the show while batting and Prasidh Krishna, on the other hand, managed to steal all the limelight with his stunning performance with the ball.

Losing the toss, India was put to bat first and they didn’t disappoint as they managed to post a mammoth total of 317 runs on the board in their 50 overs. Opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan emerged as the highest run-getter with his splendid knock of 98 runs. However, the credit for India scoring big goes to the duo of KL Rahul and Krunal Pandya as they went berserk in the last few overs and stitched a crucial partnership of 112 runs.

Prasidh Krishna shines with the ball

Krunal scored a stunning 58 runs while Rahul also had a half-century to his name with 62 runs. For England, Ben Stokes was the pick of the bowlers with 3 wickets while Mark Wood has two to his name.

Chasing 318, England got to a terrific start as the opening duo of Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow collected 135 runs within 14 overs. However, Prasidh Krishna made a memorable comeback in the game as he finished with the figures of 8.1-1-54-4. Apart from him, Shardul Thakur also picked 3 wickets while Bhuvneshwar Kumar has two under his belt. 

Losing skipper, Eoin Morgan, said

Did a lot of things right today. Wicket was brilliant as well which made for an entertaining game. There was something for the seamers but if you got in, you could score heavily too. Our bad days with the bat make it look worse than usual. Need to execute better than we did today. When you look at our top seven in particular, we’ve all scored under 60 ball hundreds. That’s the way we want to play. With one eye on the WC, we want to try and push the envelope in that regard. Sometimes it doesn’t work. But for us it’s better to lose like that than losing by 10-20 runs. That’s the way we’ll continue playing. Fitness levels have moved the game forward, bats have moved the game forward. Important for us to dictate the way we play and reinforce the method that’s worked for us. Our bowlers did an outstanding job with traditional Test lengths and line that proved effective. Didn’t probably play well enough to take advantage of the dew. Which is disappointing because the toss is an advantage here in India.

Winning skipper, Virat Kohli, said

This is one of our sweetest wins in the recent past. This one is right up there with any other. Getting nine wickets so quickly is outstanding. To come back into the game the way they did is brilliant. I’m a really, really proud man right now. Team showed great character and intensity. As I mentioned in the past as well, we promote players who have intent. Special mention to Shikhar’s innings as well. KL as well, back among the runs.

Want to back the people who we know will go out and do a selfless job. For every spot we have two-three players available. Great signs for Indian cricket. Right now we are on the right path and have a big pool of players to choose from. Shikhar’s body language was amazing when he wasn’t playing. He was so helpful for us. Today he deserved the result. He batted in the most toughest phase today and got 95 which is more valuable than what the scoreboard shows. The ploy was that when we got to 100-partnership, I told Shikhar I’ll take the bowling on. Few wickets pushed us back a little bit. It’s a fair assessment (that we were below par). Under lights as well, the ball was coming on nicely.

Player of the match, Shikhar Dhawan, said

Very happy with my performance – more than that, our team won. Was doing good gym sessions, running sessions and net sessions. All the smart work paid off. We knew ball was swinging and seaming as well, so we knew we had to stay at the wicket and play close to the body. I’m not a person who gets too sad or too happy. Wasn’t in a rush to score hundred. Unfortunately it went to hand, that’s alright. It happens. When I wasn’t playing I was like how I could give to the team. I was being a good 12th man, running around, serving water. In my head it iwas that when I get an opportunity I will grab it.