Jofra Archer & Chris Jordan on song as England dominate first IT20

Photo: BCCI

Sussex’s Jofra Archer and Chris Jordan helped set up a comfortable eight-wicket win for England in the opening match of their IT20 series against India at Ahmedabad on Friday.

England won the toss and elected to chase. Three wickets in the opening powerplay put India on the backfoot from the outset and the hosts could only muster 124 for 7 from their 20 overs.

Bowling a two over spell with the new ball, Jofra struck with just his second ball, forcing KL Rahul to chop on to set up a wicket maiden. Rishabh Pant took two boundaries – including an incredible overhead flick for six – off Jofra’s second over, which went for nine, and when he returned in the 16th over, which again cost nine, India’s top-scorer Shreyas Iyer hit him for two fours. His final over – the 18th -  cost just three runs and saw him dismiss Hardik Pandya and Shardul Thakur in consecutive deliveries, meaning Jofra finished with 3 for 23 from his four overs.

CJ was introduced in the sixth over, from which he gave away just two runs. His second over – the 15th – went for just 5 runs, before an Iyer six helped India to ten off his third. CJ got his revenge in the final over of the innings, having Iyer brilliantly caught in the deep by Dawid Malan. Ten from that over meant that CJ finished with 1 for 27 from his allocation.

England were able to reach their target with 27 balls to spare, thanks to a 32-ball 49 from Jason Roy and scores in the twenties for Jos Buttler (28 from 24), Dawid Malan (24* from 20) and Jonny Bairstow (26* off 17).

The second match of the five-match series takes place on Sunday.