Hosts India recorded a comfortable victory to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match ODI series against England in Nagpur.

England captain Jos Buttler chose to bat first after winning the toss. Despite a firing start, England were all out for 248 runs in 47.4 overs. In reply, India chased down the target in 38.4 overs after losing six wickets. 

Salt and Duckett set a strong start before the Indian bowlers' dominance

English opener Phil Salt and Ben Duckett put in a 75-run partnership for the first wicket in nine overs before a poor mix-up cost fine-form Salt’s wicket in a run out. Salt was dismissed for 43 off 26 balls (five fours and three sixes), while he hit 26 runs in an over to the ODI debutant Harshit Rana.

In the next over of Salt's run out, which was the last over of the first powerplay in the innings, Rana made a great comeback with two important wickets as Duckett (32 off 29 balls; six fours) and Harry Brook (0) were dismissed after Yashasvi Jaiswal and wicketkeeper KL Rahul took superb catches, respectively. 

Joe Root returned to the format after more than a year, but Ravindra Jadeja dismissed him for 19 runs, as England were struggling at 111/4.

Captain Jos Buttler and Jacob Bethell provided some solid knocks, but those didn’t hurt the hosts. Bethell started very slow, while Buttler scored 52 off 67 balls (four fours) before he threw his wicket surprisingly against Axar Patel’s half-tracker, which found his top edge. 

Meanwhile, Bethell scored 51 off 64 balls (three fours and one six), but Jadeja dismissed him before he became dangerous in the slog overs. Jofra Archer (21 not out off 18 balls) added some crucial runs, but those were far from enough. 

Among the Indian bowlers, debutant fast bowler Harshit Rana (3/53) and left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja (3/26) bagged three wickets each. Also, Mohammed Shami (1/38), Axar Patel (1/38), and Kuldeep Yadav (1/53) were mostly in control with one wicket each, and the wicketless Hardik Pandya (0/37) also impressed with his strong bowling performance. 

See Also: Ravindra Jadeja: The Only Indian Spinner with 600 Wickets and 6,000 Runs in International Cricket

India were 19/2 by losing both openers early

Indian openers failed in the chase as Yashasvi Jaiswal was dismissed by Jofra Archer by 15 runs, and the skipper Rohit Sharma was dismissed by Saqib Mahmood by only two runs. 

Shreyas Iyer set a counter-attack, valuable scores from Shubman Gill and Axar Patel

Struggling at 19/2, Shreyas Iyer produced a counterattack to quickly spoil the English bowlers’ party. Vice-captain Shubman Gill and Iyer produced a solid partnership to put control in the game. 

Iyer completed his half-century in 30 balls and scored 59 off 36 balls with the help of nine fours and two sixes before Jacob Bethell dismissed him through an lbw. However, the third-wicket partnership between Gill and Iyer added 94 runs. 

Then, Gill had another strong partnership with Axar Patel for the fourth wicket. Gill scored a 60-ball half-century, while Patel utilised his batting promotion with a 46-ball half-century. 

Patel scored 52 off 47 balls (six fours and one six) before Adil Rashid’s brilliant delivery bowled him. Patel and Gill had a 108-run partnership for the fourth wicket. Gill missed his century but scored valuable 87 runs off 96 balls with the help of nine fours.

Although there was a little hiccup in the Indian innings lately, where India lost three quick wickets, including Patel, KL Rahul (2), and Gill, the hosts comfortably chased the target. 

Among the English bowlers, Adil Rashid (2/49) and Saqib Mahmood (2/47) bagged two wickets each.