Gill, Iyer and Jadeja shine as India thumped England in 1st ODI.

 

Overview

India thumps England in the first ODI of the 3-match ODI series, which is played in Nagpur on February 6, 2025. 

This series holds a great deal of importance for both teams as it leads them straight into the champions trophy 2025, which is scheduled to be started on 19th February 2025.

 So both the teams are looking forward to giving an earlier punch to the other team so they can leave an earlier statement to the cricketing world as both England and India are very strong ODI Teams and both are among the favorites for the marquee event. 

Toss and Key Players 

It was a day and night game with England won the toss and decided to bat first.

England Included their white ball key players Joss Butler (c), Liam Livingstone, Jofra Archer, Harry Brook, Joe Root, and Adil Rashid. 

The Indian team was without their premium batter Virat Kohli and bowling spearhead Jasprit Bumrah as both were Injured.  Rohit Sharma was leading the Indian Team, with the likes of  Shreyas Iyer, Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav in the team.

1st Innings and Key performances

Phil Salt and Ben Duckett started the batting for England they made full use of the power play and provided England a very good start.

 Just when Indian bowlers were looking clueless, Phil Salt gave away his wicket due to a misunderstanding between the two batters, resulting in a runout courtesy of a fine throw from Shreyas Iyer when the team score was 77 in just 8.5 overs.

 In the next over Harshit Rana hands a double blow to England by 1st dismissing Ben Duckett to an excellent catch by Jaiswal and then Harry Brook on a fine bouncer. 

England lost Joe Root also at the score of 111 on the bowling of Ravindra Jadeja. At that time England were 111/4 in 18.3 overs.

Joss Butler and Jacob Bethel tried to build a partnership and took England's total to 170 without any further damage, both the batters scored quick fifties and gave India a good counter punch before Butler got out to Axar. 

After that, there were no significant contributions from England's lower order as they were bundled out to 248 in the 47th over.  A score that was looking below par on a good batting surface. 

England's stand-out performers with the bat were Jacob Bethel and Jos Butler who scored 51 off 64 and 52 off 67 balls respectively.  

For India Harshit Rana and Ravindra Jadeja were stars with the ball both the bowlers picked up 3, 3 wickets. 

2nd Innings-Run chase

While chasing a below-par total, India lost both the openers As  Archer and Mehmood double strike to dismiss Yasheswi Jaiswal and Rohit Sharma as England made earlier inroads and left India reeling at 19/2 in 4.2 overs. 

Then Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer calm the nerves with some fine shots and counter-attack English Bowlers, who were already under pressure due to the dismal show of their batters. Shreyas Iyas completed his quickfire fifty and scored 59 off just 36 balls before being dismissed by Jacob Bethel LBW. 

Axar Patel joined Shubman Gill in the middle, who was in fine touch. Axar Kept the pressure on England and played an aggressive knock. Both the batters completed their quick fifties and the Indian total to 221 in just 33 overs. Axar scored 52 off just 47 balls and he was dismissed by Adil Rashid at the score of 221 but it was too late as the damage was already done. 

England struck back with another double strike by dismissing KL Rahul and set batter Shubman Gill, but eventually, Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja settled the proceedings and completed the chase to hand India a comprehensive win.

Key Performances

Shubman Gill was the star of the day he scored 87 runs off 96 balls including 14 fours in his innings he played some classy shots. other top performers with the bat from the Indian side were Axar Patel and Shreyas Iyer who scored 52 off 47 balls and 59 off 36 balls respectively.

From England's side, Saqib Mehmood and Adil Rashid took 2,2 wickets, whereas Jofra Archer and Jacob Bethel got 1,1 wickets each.

Match Summary and Player of the Day

India won the match by 4 wickets and now leads the 3-match ODI series 1-0. 

Shubman Gill was handed a well-deserved Man of the Match award for his brilliant knock. 

Final thoughts

Indian team read the conditions very well, and they applied themselves perfectly. This series is in India, so they know their conditions very well. Their bowlers and batters were quite better on the day as compared to England's Team whose both batters and bowlers were not up to the mark.

What's Next?

England needs their middle order to contribute more to put a good score. Their bowlers have to find the right line and length to bowl on these tracks. They will have to explore the weaknesses of Indian batters to get them out early.

India definitely would like to have more runs from their Top-order and lower-middle-order going into the champions trophy. 

Next match is on 9th February after 2 days gap, so both the teams have a good time to sit back and identify their areas to improve and to work on them.

So what do you think will England make a comeback and level the series in the next game, or will Team India continue their dominance on their home soil and win the series in the next encounter. Leave your thoughts in the comments to let us know.