India captain Shubman Gill continued his Edgbaston love-affair as his side beat England by six wickets in the first one-day international on Tuesday.
Set 259 to win, India cruised home with 28 balls to spare to go 1-0 up in a three-match series.
It was their first triumph of a tour where they had suffered 2-0 and 4-0 T20 series losses to Ireland and England respectively.
Gill top-scored with 80, from just 75 balls, before limping off with what appeared to be cramp. A team spokesman told AFP after stumps that Gill was expected to be fit for Thursday’s second ODI in Cardiff.
It was at Edgbaston last year that Gill, also India’s red-ball skipper, became the first batsman to make a double century in one innings of a Test match and a score of 150 in the other.
Gill and T20 captain Shreyas Iyer shared a century partnership after India lost Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in quick succession to be 48-2.
England did reduce India to 160-4 after Gill retired.
But Washington Sundar (52 not out) and Axar Patel (57 not out) put the result beyond doubt with a blizzard of boundaries in an unbroken stand of 102.
“When you see your middle and lower middle order score runs and finish the job, it gives you confidence as a captain,” said Gill at the presentation ceremony.
Earlier, India took five wickets for 19 runs as England collapsed from 61-0 to 80-5.
‘Right areas’
“We have a youngish bowling attack,” said Gill, himself still only 26.
“Our batting is more experienced than our bowling, so even if we had a target of 300-320, we backed ourselves to chase that.
“Our bowling in the middle overs was very pleasing. We bowled in the right areas.”
Player of the match Patel, who had previously taken four wickets in England’s 258 all out, completed a fine fifty when he slog-swept off-spinner Will Jacks for four.
Sundar ended the game in style, with a straight six off leg-spinner Adil Rashid that saw him to his fifty.
Kohli fails
The massed ranks of India spectators cheering Sundar and Patel had fallen silent when star batsman Kohli was plumb lbw to fast bowler Jofra Archer for just five.
Kohli has already retired from both Test and T20 cricket and this series could be the last the 37-year-old plays for India in England.
England are number one in the T20 rankings following their 4-0 series whitewash of world champions India.
But they are only eighth in the ODI standings and in danger of not qualifying for next year’s 50-over World Cup in southern Africa.
After their top-order collapse, they were still struggling at 107-6.
But Joe Root — dropped on seven — with a run-a-ball 76 not out and Liam Dawson, whose 68 was his highest ODI score, shared a seventh-wicket partnership of 121 that kept them in the game.
“To get us to a decent total in the end that we thought we could potentially defend, it’s a great effort from the lads,” said England captain Harry Brook.
But after India’s fast bowlers, including the returning Jasprit Bumrah, did the initial damage, England were all out with 13 balls of their innings remaining after left-arm spinner Patel followed up with 4-62.
Gurnoor Brar sparked England’s collapse when Jacob Bethell holed out to deep square-leg and two balls later he had Ben Duckett (43) caught at third man by Bumrah.
Fast bowler Bumrah, rested from the recent T20 reverses to help manage his workload, finished with a typically miserly 1-31 in nine overs after having Brook caught at slip for just one.
Jos Buttler fresh from a blistering century in the T20 series finale at Southampton, managed only five in his 200th ODI when he skyed Prasidh Krishna and Brar clung on despite colliding with Gill.
Source: Khaleej Times