KOLKATA: Inspired bowling and a 34-ball 79 by opener Abhishek Sharma helped India to a crushing seven-wicket win over England in the first T20 international on Wednesday.
Spinner Varun Chakravarthy and fast bowler Arshdeep Singh shared five wickets between them as India bowled out England for 132 after the hosts elected to field first in Kolkata.
Left-hander Sharma then came out firing and despite losing two of his partners smashed a 20-ball fifty and ended with eight sixes and five fours to steer the team to victory in 12.5 overs and a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.
The T20 series, followed by three ODIs, between the two teams serve as a warm-up for the 50-over Champions Trophy next month.
England skipper Jos Buttler smashed 68 off 44 balls but the rest of the line-up failed to get going.
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Phil Salt fell for a duck on the third ball of the match, with a leading edge off his bat sending the ball high and into the gloves of wicketkeeper Sanju Samson.
Arshdeep dismissed Ben Duckett for four in the third over, with Rinku Singh taking a stunning backward running catch from the covers.
Buttler hit back with four boundaries off Hardik Pandya as he attempted to rebuild in a 48-run third-wicket partnership with his new deputy Harry Brook, who scored 17.
Chakravarthy bowled Brook with a googly and sent back Liam Livingstone for a duck as the ball darted into the stumps once again.
Buttler reached his fifty in 34 balls but wickets kept tumbling and in an attempt to push the scoring the skipper finally fell to Chakravarthy, who returned figures of 3-23, the ball after hitting the bowler for six.
Arshdeep, Axar Patel and Pandya took two wickets each and a run out from the last ball saw England all out in 20 overs.
India raced to 41 in 4.1 overs before fast bowler Jofra Archer took down Sanju Samson, for 26, and skipper Suryakumar Yadav, for a duck, in the space of four deliveries.
But Sharma kept up the batting blitz to take the steam out of the England bowling.
The 24-year-old Sharma finally fell to Adil Rashid but not after a show that entertained the raucous home crowd.
It was a disappointing start for England’s new white-ball coach Brendon McCullum, who was previously only in charge of the Test side.
India surprisingly left out Mohammed Shami after the fast bowler returned to the squad following a heel injury that kept him away from competitive cricket for over a year.
The second T20 is on Saturday in Chennai.
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