Ahmedabad (Gujarat) [India], March 13 (ANI): After registering an eight-wicket win in the first T20I of the five-match series against India, England white-ball skipper Eoin Morgan revealed that the intention of his side was always to go with pace to rattle the opposition.
England defeated India by eight wickets with 27 balls to spare here at the Narendra Modi Stadium. Chasing 125, Jason Roy and Jos Buttler starred with the bat as they played knocks of 49 and 28 respectively.
In the match, India went in with three frontline spinners — Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, and Yuzvendra Chahal while England went in with four frontline seamers — Sam Curran, Chris Jordon, Mark Wood, Jofra Archer, and all-rounder Ben Stokes also chipped in with a few overs.
“That was certainly the intention to go with pace. Jofra’s strength is that he can bowl really fast among others but certainly Mark Wood’s super strength is that he can bowl super fast. It is hard to do all the time but when he bowls like tonight it is very good entertainment. Couldn’t ask for more particularly in the bowling department. The wicket was as expected,” Morgan told host broadcaster Star Sports at the post-match presentation.
“The plans were very basic – to bowl on a length and straight. There is a huge amount of competition within the side and it is a huge boost for anyone scoring runs. When Jason scores runs and does well, in the fashion that he plays it is a good sign. It is a completely different format of the game. We have been on tours, where the white-ball guys have played first and not played well and likewise it has not lingered into the Test matches. Archer is excellent, like our batting unit our bowling unit has competition for places. We will be up against it a lot of times in the series and it is important to produce your best,” he added.
In the first T20I, Shreyas Iyer had played a lone hand as he scored 67 runs while batting at number five and this helped India post a score of 124/7 in the allotted twenty overs.
Jofra Archer returned with three wickets while Adil Rashid, Mark Wood, Chris Jordon, and Ben Stokes took one wicket each.
India and England will now lock horns in the second T20I of the five-match series on Sunday. (ANI)