‌IND vs ENG | Twitter reacts to gritty Gill and flamboyant Shreyas steal spotlight as India steamroll England 

In a preparatory measure for the Champions Trophy, India and England squared off in the first out of the three-match ODIs with the latter opting to bat first during the toss. Openers. Phil Salt and Ben Duckett gave a fiery start with the bat after a couple of observative overs. With 26 runs off the sixth over, the English scoreboard propelled to 71 in eight overs before a terrible mixup made way for a couple of more wickets as Harshit Rana struck in his second spell. Joe Root and Jos Buttler played out the spinners until the 18th over before Jadeja outsmarted Root pushing them to 114/4 in 20 overs. With the team under pressure, Jacob Bethell and Buttler showed immense composure to tackle the bowlers, adding 48 runs in the next ten overs. With the ball experiencing uneven bounce off the wicket, a low kept delivery in the 33rd over off Axar Patel drew curtains on Buttler’s 67-ball 52. Two overs later, Harshit outsmarted Liam Livingstone, followed by Shami getting Brydon Carse in the 40th over with the 206/7 on board. Despite the fall of wickets from the other end, Bethell’s matured 64-ball 51 coupled with Jofra Archer’s latte blitz propelled England to 248 before getting bundled with 14 balls to spare.

Unlike their counterparts, Indian openers, Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal, who paired up for the Mumbai Ranji Trophy team a week back, got off to a poor start as Jofra Archer and Saqib Mahmood sent them packing by the sixth over. With the score reflecting 19/2, the hosts were pushed on the backfoot before Shreyas Iyer initiated a counter-attack. She smoked a pull and upper cut off Jofra Archer on back-to-back deliveries, laying the foundation for an individual fifty in 30 balls. They reached nelson in 15 overs but fell short of a century stand by six runs with Bethell getting Iyer for 59. Subsequently, Axar Patel was sent up the order, perhaps to counter Adil Rashid’s wrist spin. He fetched a four and a six off the spinners in the next two overs followed by Shubman Gill attacking Liam Livingstone to steer India to 138/3 in 20 overs. The 25-year-old kept respecting the good balls while ticking the scoreboard with a measured approach, adding 68 runs in the next ten overs. With 43 runs needed off the last 20 overs, they maintained the same approach before Adil Rashid cleaned him up with a peach in the 34th over. As Gill reached the 80s, Rahul tried to assist him but failed to do so with Rashid outsmarting him. This is when Hardik Pandya stepped in and smoked a six off the 36th over’s last ball bringing down the equation to 18 required of 14 overs. However, Gill departed for a gritty 87 in the next over before the all-round duo eased the chase with 68 balls remaining.

What a turn there!!!