England cruise to 1-0 series lead

They waited, and waited, and waited, and finally England's bowlers had the chance to spearhead a victory on this tour. True, none of them picked up more than two wickets, but that only established how good they were as a unit. India were kept to a measly 147 on a pitch that wasn't in any way untoward and as icing on the cake Eoin Morgan shellacked a half-century to make sure his team took a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

Tymal Mills, Chris Jordan, Liam Plunkett and Ben Stokes were given a brief to bowl length and just short of it, while ensuring the batsmen do not have room to use their pace to relieve the pressure. Moeen Ali was at his restrictive best, picking up 2 for 21 in four overs, targeting the stumps with flat darts and in the end the services of their specialist spinner Adil Rashid was not even needed.

India, who had lost the toss and were put in, seemed rather obsessed with power-hitting. They had gone through the entire World T20 playing proper cricket, only to be brutally swept aside by West Indies in the semi-final. From the moment Virat Kohli carved the third ball of the match for four through point, it seemed like they were trying go for the boundary every single ball. It did not pay off though, as England dashed a little bit of the Republic Day celebrations at a jam-packed Green Park stadium in Kanpur.

Admittedly, it doesn't seem the worst strategy to leave your brain behind as a batsman when playing T20. There's 10 wickets to negotiate 20 overs, and while batting first, it even seems logical to do so. But India don't normally play in this fashion and will need time to catch up with the rest of the world. This evening, for example, they couldn't deal with how they were bleeding wickets, at the worst possible times.

Kohli and KL Rahul, who opened the batting, fell within three overs of each other on either side of the Powerplay. Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh and Manish Pandey - Nos 3, 4 and 6 - dismissed within three overs as well, between the 11th and the 14th. India couldn't lay a good enough foundation at the start and were running out of batsmen by the end. No one made it past a score of 36.

The key for England was in how well they read the pitch. It was both grassy and cracked and lent itself to fast bowlers who were willing to hit the deck and also experiment with cross-seamers and slower balls. Jordan and Mills - who were playing their first matches on this tour - did exactly that. Then Moeen, who began his spell having Kohli caught at short midwicket for 29 off 26, excelled in the middle overs, bowling stump-to-stump. His length was lovely as well, not full enough to drive freely and not short enough that the batsman could use the pace. The end result, he conceded only one boundary.

India had somehow mis-hit their way to 47 in the Powerplay, but once England had the comfort of having five men on the boundary, the edges no longer found gaps. They offered a mere 37 runs between the 13th and 19th overs. Moeen had created the pressure, the quicks came back, knowing they will be targeted, but by varying their pace and banging the ball into the pitch without the width to cut or pull, they gave India, who were by now only trying to hit the ball as hard as they could, very few options.

Hardik Pandya found that out when he was cramped by a short ball rising up to his shoulder and found deep point; Mills meanwhile had his first T20I wicket. Rahul was caught unawares by a sharp bouncer from Jordan in the fourth over, which he could only fend to short fine leg.

Yuvraj top-edged a pull to long leg off Plunkett and Raina was bowled by a searing yorker from Stokes. Morgan's captaincy should be credited here, forcing the two left-handers to deal with the kind of bowling they generally dislike facing, and less so with an innings in jeopardy: fast and at their bodies. Moeen played his part too, spinning the ball away or making it skid on, rarely letting himself be lined up. MS Dhoni managed to stick it out till the end, hitting a couple of fours in the last over, but 147 was nowhere near par.

It showed when Jason Roy and Sam Billings blitzed 36 in three overs at the start of the chase. India did put a stop to the mayhem in the next over with legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal, picked ahead of Amit Mishra, bowling both batsmen. But it didn't matter in the larger scheme of things since England managed to gun down a third of their target within the first six overs. With that in the back of their minds, Joe Root, returning from a niggle, and Morgan put on 83 runs for the third wicket and that partnership was more than enough to seal a straightforward chase. A further sign of how disappointing India's batting had been on the day was debutant Parvez Rasool picking up the England captain for 51 and barely celebrating. He knew it just didn't matter.