With the help of half-centuries from Abhishek Sharma (59) and captain Shreyas Iyer (68), India scored 189 runs for seven wickets in the first T20 match against England on Wednesday but the match had to be canceled due to heavy rain.
The innings of Abhishek and Iyer were a good sign for India as Ireland lost 0. The main reason for losing the series by 2 was the poor form of the batsmen.
England’s innings could not even start because torrential rain started during the break of the innings. With more than 40 minutes left in the cut-off time for five overs to be played, the umpires decided to abandon the match.
The second match of the five-match series will be played in Manchester on July 4.
Earlier, the Indian team, which won the toss and chose to bat first, had a bad start.
The T20 World Champion team once again lost the wicket of Sanju Samson early, who was caught by Tom Benton at point off the bowling of Saqib Mahmood. Ishan Kishan was also run out due to a misunderstanding with Abhishek when only six runs were left on the score board.
For England, Shakib took three wickets for 33 runs.
The Indian team seemed to be repeating the story of the series against Ireland but Abhishek took the team out of pressure. He hit one four and two sixes in Mahmood’s over and Iyer also hit a four and scored 21 runs in the fourth over.
Mahmood bowled short-pitched balls to Abhishek but he was ready for it and hit excellent pool shots.
Abhishek and Iyer made a partnership of 82 runs for the third wicket. Abhishek hit Mark Wood for three consecutive fours due to which after the powerplay, India’s score was 61 runs for two wickets.
Even after the powerplay, Abhishek continued playing at the same pace and completed his half-century in 20 balls. After this, however, he was out LBW on the bowling of Sam Curran.
After this, Iyer took charge and scored his first T20 half-century as captain. He hit a four off leg spinner Adil Rashid and hit a six off Wood at extra cover. He completed his half-century in 38 balls but he too could not last long after that and was out LBW on the ball of Mahmood.
Shivam Dubey finally scored 42 runs in 21 balls to take India to 189 runs.
