Kuldeep Yadav on Thursday took six wickets as India overpowered the hosts in the first one-day international at Trent Bridge in Nottingham, England.
The left-arm wrist-spinner returned career-best one-day figures of 6-25 as England were dismissed for a mere 268 after India captain Virat Kohli sent them in to bat.
Rohit Sharma, to the delight of the many India fans in a sun-drenched capacity crowd of more than 17,000, then made an unbeaten century as the tourists won by eight wickets with a mammoth 59 balls to spare.
Photo: AP
Sharma was 137 not out, after putting on 167 for the second wicket with Kohli (75) as India went 1-0 up in the three-match series.
It was all a far cry from the June 19 one-day match at Trent Bridge where England compiled a record total of 481-6 in a 242-run win over Australia during a 5-0 series rout of their archrivals.
After Kuldeep had dismissed England’s top three during a burst of three wickets for five runs in 10 balls, Ben Stokes (50) and Jos Buttler (53) shared a fifth-wicket stand of 93, but neither could break the shackles and both fell to Kuldeep, who was just the third overseas spinner to take five wickets in a one-day match in England after Sri Lanka great Muttiah Muralitharan (5-34 at Lord’s in 1998) and India’s Suraj Randiv (5-42 at Old Trafford in 2011).
“It’s a big day for me,” said Kuldeep, whose return was also the best by any spinner against England in one-day internationals. “I started pretty well in the first two overs and luckily I got a couple [of wickets], which really changed the momentum for us.”
Meanwhile, Kohli accepted there was a chance both Kuldeep and leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal could force their way into India’s squad for the five-Test campaign in England that follows the one-day series.
“He is making a strong start for himself, as is Chahal — both of them are pretty lethal for us and looking at the English batsmen struggling against them we might be tempted to do that,” Kohli said.
Having struggled against Kuldeep in a preceding 2-1 Twenty20 loss, England captain Eoin Morgan said his side had to improve playing of spin ahead of today’s second one-day international at Lord’s in London.
“Full credit to India — they completely outplayed us,” Morgan said. “Kuldeep had a pretty good day at the office. Playing spin against India is a challenge we will hopefully improve on, but today we were off the mark.”
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