England captain Jos Buttler doffed his hat to Jasprit Bumrah after India’s gun fast bowler ran riot against the hosts in the first ODI at Kennington Oval, London. The visitors went on to win by a massive margin of 10 wickets and with 31.2 overs to spare to give a huge beating to Three Lions.
Indian captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and decided to bowl first on tinge green Oval pitch in overcast conditions. Bumrah bowled in great areas to breathe down the neck of the opposition and got the ball to swing and seam.
The fast bowler got rid of Jason Roy, who played on to the stumps in the very first over which Bumrah bowled. The ace paceman then got the big wicket of Joe Root with extra bounce with Pant taking a good catch.
Shami then dismissed Ben Stokes with the ball coming into the left-hander from around the wicket and then Bumrah had Bairstow’s number with another peach of a delivery. Jason Roy, Joe Root and Bairstow were all dismissed without even scoring a solitary run as England found themselves at 26-5 after Liam Livingstone was bowled by Bumrah.
Bumrah scalped four wickets in his first spell as he hardly gave away anything to the opposition. The talisman then returned back to dismiss David Willey and Brydon Carse to return with figures of 6-19, which is his best bowling performance in ODI format.
In fact, Bumrah bowled a total of 38 dot balls in his two spells as England batters had no answers to his fine bowling. Thus, the home team were skittled out for a paltry score of 110 runs and India got over the line convincingly without even losing a single wicket as Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan completed the formalities.
Jos Buttler said in the post-match presentation, “Very tough day to take, but we’ve got to dust ourselves down quickly. Little surprised by the movement, bit muggy. India exposed the conditions superbly. They have bowled really well in the powerplay. It is something we need to discuss and work out. We have some guys in the form of their lives in Tests coming here and getting nicked off. Jasprit is a great bowler to come up against. He has bowled fantastically well today and deserves these figures. It is never easy when you are forced to try and force wickets. Isn’t nice when your bowlers have to take as may risks and when you ask so much out of them.”
England were not at all up to the mark as nothing went their way. The hosts will look to stay alive in the series and the second ODI will be played at Lord’s on Thursday.
