All-rounder Hardik Pandya's brilliant half-century (51 off 33 balls) and outstanding bowling (4/33 in 4 overs) helped India defeat Jos Buttler's England by a wide margin of 50 runs in the opening T20 International — a day-night match — at The Rose Bowl here late on Thursday.
In the match against England, Pandya continued his incredible form from the Indian Premier League (IPL) and the recently finished series against Ireland. He led the visitors to a massive 198/8 in 20 overs before coming back to bowl a fiery spell that saw the home team dismissed for 148 in 19.3 overs.
As Suryakumar Yadav (39 off 19) joined Pandya in the blitz, the run rate remained above 10-an-over during the vital middle phase, continuing the work of the top order.
With a no result against South Africa in Bengaluru, the team has now won 14 of the last 17 T20Is since the competition, losing just twice during that time frame.
Then, Pandya returned with the ball to dismiss the risky opener Jason Roy (4), Dawid Malan (21), Liam Livingstone (0), and Sam Curran (4) as England, led by new skipper Buttler, struggled to get their innings going early on.
Pandya's authoritative performance and major contributions from players like Deepak Hooda bode well for the squad as it gets ready for the ICC T20 World Cup in Australia later this year.
With Dinesh Karthik's career revival giving the team another finisher at their disposal, Deepak Hooda's 33 (17) proves his form in Ireland was no fluke.
Yuzvendra Chahal continues to project authority while bowling. Any prospect of an English comeback was eliminated when the leg-spinner claimed Moeen Ali (36 off 20) and Harry Brook (28 off 23).
It wasn't to be for Buttler as the new T20I white-ball captain lost and was out for a first-ball duck in the chase while his red-ball colleagues rode the wave of a great start under Brendon McCullum.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar set up the right-hander by sending Jason Roy away with his first four deliveries as a swing bowler, only for Jos Buttler's first delivery to hoop in and destroy the stumps.
Earlier, Buttler used seven bowlers, with Chris Jordan the only one to offer any resistance to India's charges (2/23 from four overs).
Brief scores: India 198/8 in 20 overs (Deepak Hooda 33, Suryakumar Yadav 39, Hardik Pandya 51) beat England 148 in 19.3 overs (Moeen Ali 36; Hardik Pandya 4/33, Yuzvendra Chahal 2/32, Arshdeep Singh 2/18) by 50 runs.