Twitter Reactions: Hardik Pandya's all-round brilliance dismantles England, India clinch series opener

India enjoyed a memorable outing at The Rose Bowl in Southampton as they started off the T20I series on a positive note. An all-round show by Hardik Pandya helped India take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series as the visitors won the contest by 50 runs.

Rohit Sharma (24 off 14) started out the innings seeming to be in good shape, but he was shortly dismissed by Moeen Ali in the very first over that the Englishman came out to bowl. Ishan Kishan (8 off 10) too appeared to be having trouble regaining his normal rhythm and Moeen picked him as well in his second over. Even though Moeen scalped the openers, England never completely took control of this game in the powerplay as the scoring rate remained around 10.

After the two big wickets, it was Deepak Hooda and Suryakumar Yadav (39 off 19) who built back the innings as they hit some big shots to take the game further in an aggressive manner. Hooda looked to go long in the game but was restricted by Chris Jordan, as he had to walk back scoring a quick-fire 17-ball 33 and Pandya joined Yadav in the middle.

Pandya (51 off 33) reached his maiden T20I half-century, but Axar Patel’s (17 off 12) promotion in the batting order ahead of Dinesh Karthik (11 off 7) did not quite work out for the Men in Blue. In the final five overs, the visitors severely slowed down, losing four wickets and accumulating just 41 runs. England bowlers, usually known for poor death-over performances, were pretty impressive this time as India finished scoring 198/8.

Hardik Pandya shines with the bat and the ball

England’s plan of making it big from the start of the chase failed, as Bhuvneshwar Kumar struck in the very first over and dismissed the in-form skipper Jos Buttler for a golden duck. The hosts further got into deeper trouble when Pandya entered the attack and picked two wickets in an over, in the form of Dawid Malan (21 off 14) and Liam Livingstone (0 off 3), to reduce England to 32/3 at the end of the powerplay.

He struck again in the second over of his spell, just after the powerplay, and dismissed opener Jason Roy (4 off 16). Harry Brook (28 off 23) and Moeen (36 off 20) tried to rebuild the innings, but Yuzvendra Chahal ruined their plans by dismissing both set batters. It was Pandya’s day out in the field as he bagged another wicket in the form of all-rounder Sam Curran to complete his four-wicket haul. Debutant Arshdeep Singh claimed two wickets towards the end as India skittled England all out for 148 to win the game by 50 runs.

Let’s look at how Twitter reacted to India’s triumph: