Riding on Axar Patel's allround excellence, India prevail over England in first ODI

Riding on an allround performance by Axar Patel, India defeated England in the first ODI here on Tuesday.

Both Axar and Washington Sundar struck fifties after skipper Shubman Gill retired hurt.

Earlier, the seasoned Joe Root and plucky Liam Dawson scored half-centuries in a gutsy seventh wicket stand for 121 runs as England posted a respectable 258 in the opening ODI despite the Indian pace attack wreaking havoc.

From a solid 61 for no loss till the start of 13^th over, England slumped to 107 for 6 before the end of the 22^nd over and there seemed no chance of a recovery from that position.

However, Root with a run-a-ball 76, fought well alongside Dawson, whose career-best 68 off 83 balls took them to a position where bowlers had a decent total to defend.

Root played the field, waited patiently for Bumrah to complete his first two spells and attacked Axar Patel (4/62), Prasidh Krishna once the pitch showed signs of easing out.

The best shot was a ramp off a Jasprit Bumrah bouncer. He hit six fours and a six in all.

While the peerless Bumrah (1/31 in 9 overs) was the best Indian bowler in terms of skills and quality on display, young Gurnoor Brar (2/61 in 9 overs) and the usually profligate Prasidh (2/50 in 10 overs) also chipped in with wickets despite going for runs.

Axar ran through the tail after the Dawson-Root stand recording his best figures in ODI cricket.

England opted to bat on a pitch that had bounce and carry with good value for shots.

Coming back after a six-week workload management related break, Bumrah hit the straps right away with a first spell of 4-0-8-0 with Jacob Bethell (14 off 31 balls) and Ben Duckett (43 off 45 balls) not able to handle the Indian legend.

He got the ball to move both ways either from length or from slightly back of it, with extra bounce creating doubts in the mind of batters. He bowled as many as 36 dot balls in his spell.

What the wickets column won’t show is the kind of impact that Bumrah created, something that was absent when the Indian team played the recently concluded forgettable T20I series.

Prasidh was also steady at the other end before Duckett launched into Brar’s opening over that went for 17.

Brar went for a couple of boundaries in his next over before he finally found his length on the Edgbaston track in his third over getting two wickets in a space of three deliveries.

In the first two, he was slightly shorter and in the third over, he pushed the length from shorter to good length and the extra bounce found Bethell cramped for room going for a pull and Duckett slashed away from body — both batters caught in the deep.

In the case of Duckett, it was a very well-judged catch by Bumrah, who managed to keep his body balanced at the third man boundary rope.

It was in a space of six deliveries that India took complete control of the proceedings as Bumrah coming in for his second spell bowled one from back of length that saw England skipper Harry Brook taken aback by extra bounce giving a regulation catch to Rohit Sharma at first slip.

Once Brar and Bumrah ran through top-order, it was the turn of Prasidh to join the party as he snuffed out Jos Buttler and Sam Curran in quick succession.

Buttler got a leading edge while Curran edged one to KL Rahul behind the stumps.

Just when it seemed England would be all out for less than 150, Root-Dawson showed a lot of stomach for a good scrap.