Chasing a paltry 133 for a win, India overhauled the target with 43 balls to spare as they reached 133 for 3 in just 12.5 overs.
Abhishek made England pay for a dropped catch as he hit five fours and eight sixes during his hurricane 34-ball innings. His opening partner Sanju Samson made 26 off 20 balls.
Earlier, India bowled England out for 132 in 20 overs after the visitors were asked to bat by home team captain Suryakumar Yadav.
Mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy (3/23) was the most successful Indian bowler while seamer Arshdeep Singh (2/17), Axar Patel (2/22) and Hardik Pandya (2/42) chipped in with two wickets apiece.
For England, captain Jos Buttler played a lone hand with 68 off 44 balls.
Skipper Suryakumar Yadav said, the energy, the way we started after winning the toss, that set the benchmark. We took it from there. All the bowlers having their own plans, executing that, having good energy on the ground and the way we batted was the icing on the cake. (On picking three spinners) We wanted to stick to our strengths, we did the same thing when we played in South Africa. Hardik took the responsibility of bowling with the new ball. So I had a little bit of cushion to play that extra spinner and all those three are doing a wonderful job. (On Varun) He’s keeping things very simple, he’s clear in his mind and most importantly, his preparations are on point. That’s what makes him different from the others. (On Arshdeep) With experience, he’s learning a lot, taking the extra responsibility. He knew he was the only bowler who could bowl with the new ball today and then it was Hardik. He took that responsibility and he’s been doing it regularly. There’s a lot of freedom being given by Gauti bhai. We just want to play a little bit different from what we did in the 2024 T20 World Cup. We have our plans, we are batting the same way and very happy with the way we are going. We’ve been working really hard with the fielding coach in all the sessions. There’s only one demand from him that we have good energy, take the half-chances and make a difference and that’s what everyone is doing.
English captain Jos Buttler said, There was a little bit in the wicket early on, probably didn’t expect that. It looked like a really good wicket, they found a little bit of movement and we lost a couple of wickets. But if you come through that phase, it’s a pretty good pitch and obviously a fast-scoring ground. Some really good players in there, we wanted to enforce the game that we want to play and we weren’t quite capable of doing that today against some good bowlers but we’re better for the run-out and we’re looking forward to the next one. He (Jofra Archer) always looks good, he’s a superstar, he looked threatening. Thought he could have had a few more wickets there. Mark Wood was bowling fast as well. To see two of them operate in tandem is exciting. We want to be aggressive, we want to be watchable. We are up against a team who are ultra-aggressive as well, so it’s really exciting. Venue to venue, you got to assess the conditions and play well. I am really enjoying the environment. I am a big McCullum fan, I always was when he was playing, so great to be working with him in the dressing room now.
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