Kanpur T20: Morgan’s clinical fifty helps England defeat India by 7 wickets

India captain Virat Kohli credited opposition bowlers for their impressive show in the first Twenty20 worldwide, saying the hosts were 30-35 runs short of their target against England on Thursday.

England proved that they have learnt the lessons from the recent ODI series defeat to India with an impressive T20 victory over the same opponents on Thursday.

England batsmen got off to a flying start chasing a modest target of 148 runs and were 48 for 2 after six overs.

Fielding like that can sometimes prove the difference between a match being won and lost but unfortunately for Raina, it didn’t on this occasion. Joe Root (46) and skipper Eoin Moragn (51) ensured a comfortable victory for the visitors. We want to play more special cricket, play more positive than what we have in the past, not worry about the result too much.

Kohli then realised the ball was coming on nicely on the bat off pacers, therefore he slowed with spinners at both ends.The ploy worked immediately with leggie Yuvendra Chahal finding the stumps of both the unsafe openers in his first over, bringing the silent crowd back to life. Having said that, I would still say that 175-180 was not enough on this pitch.

Kohli accepted his team has to learn to respond when the opposition is dominating you. Even the intensity of the hosts was visibly less than their English counterparts.

After a super-entertaining Test and following the ODI Series, the India vs England T20I Series is just around the corner. There are things we need to address and learn from this game.

Earlier, England restricted the hosts to 147/7. “I am sure they will able to replicate their domestic success at this level”. Similarly, this series is an opportunity for Suresh Raina to resurrect his career as much as it is a chance for Yuvraj Singh to get more game time before travelling to England. The decision to move up from his usual No. 3 slot, Kohli revealed, had only come as a logical outcome to regular opener Rohit Sharma’s injury-forced absence.

Ali got the better of Kohli just as he looked to be setting the pace. Morgan departed after scoring his half-century but Root stayed unbeaten till the end to guide the 2016 WT20 runners-up to yet another memorable T20 win on Indian soil.

“I think he (Raina) still has a lot to offer”. We got the job done. England’s fast bowlers will seek to respond with yorkers, which they largely shied away from in the ODIs, perhaps because the delivery has a minuscule margin for error. We played a lot of Test matches in between so it seems there is a bit of a gap. He bowls with the new ball as well with mid-on and mid-off up.