IND vs ENG 1st ODI: India sweeps England with Shikhar Dhawan’s 98

In an eventful match full of topsy turvy periods of cricketing, the Indians proved themselves as the better side by beating England by a whopping margin of 66 runs. This makes India lead the 3 match One Day International series by 1-0. The true stars of the game were found in the gabbar aka Shikhar Dhawan and the two debuts- Parsidh Krishna and Krunal Pandya, who were simply exceptional.

Shikhar Dhawan was plainly boisterous with his 50-run partnership with Rohit Sharma and a 105-run partnership with Virat Kohli. Dhawan missed kissing a century and returned to the pavilion with a sturdy score of 98. Kohli in his usual excellence collected some 56 odd runs but was ousted by Mark Wood. India’s campaign for a competitive score was then carried on by a determined KL Rahul (62) and debutante Krunal Pandya (58), who hit the fastest fifty by an ODI debutant. Both the batsmen were hitting the fence back-to-back coupled with massive sixes even pocketing some 21 runs off the 48th over of the innings, helping India finish at 317/5.

England saw some beautiful bowling from Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Prasidh Krishna in the opening overs but came back strong by hitting Krishna for 22 runs in the 6th over. Jonny Bairstow’s quick 50 put England in a great momentum, however his partner Jason Roy was denied a half century by Krishna and was caught out at 46. Krishna then found his next victim in the vicious Ben Stokes who left with a single run. In the 25th over, Shardul Thakur came to the game, dismissing the deadly partnership of Bairstow and Jos Buttler in four balls to ensure India's victory. The English side was dismissed in the 43rd over for 251.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar was phenomenal with his low economy of 3.33 runs but the real superhero was Parsidh Krishna who became the first ever Indian to take 4 wickets in his first ODI. It will be interesting to watch England pick its game up for the second ODI which is to be played on Friday.