England defeated India by 31 runs on the fourth day of first test match played at Edgbaston just finished few moments. With 84 runs required, the Indian batsmen could not handle the pressure and fell short.
India needed 84 runs to win on the final day. Jimmy Anderson got the early wicket of Dinesh Karthik in the very first over itself. The Indian captain Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya steadied the innings. Virat Kohli reached his second half century off 88 balls. Ben Stokes came to the bowling crease dismissing Virat Kohli and Mohammed Shami in the same over to leave India at 141 for 8.
Ishant Sharma played some lovely strokes but was dismissed by Adil Rashid for 11. Hardik Pandya tried his best to take India through. Ben Stokes got the wicket of Hardik Pandya to finish the innings. England bowled India for 162. For England, Stokes was the pick of bowlers with 4 for 40.
It was an amazing performance by the England team who showed great courage and won the match by 31 runs to take a 1-0 lead. The Indians must feel disappointed after being in such a great position.
England 287 in 89.4 overs (Joe Root 80, Jonny Bairstow 70, Ravichandran Ashwin 4/60, Mohammed Shami 3/64) and 180 in 53 over’s ( Sam Curran 63, Bairstow 28, Ashwin 3/59, Ishant Sharma 5/51) beat
India 274 in 76 overs ( Virat Kohli 149, Hardik Pandya 22, Dhawan 26, Sam Curran 4/74, ) and 162 in 54.2 overs ( Virat Kohli 51, Dinesh Karthik 20, Hardik Pandya 31, Ben Stokes 4/40, Stuart Broad 2/43, Anderson 2/50) by 31 runs.
Indian captain Virat Kohli said: It was a great game of cricket. A lot of times we showed character and came back strongly. Could have applied much better but proud of the fight we put on. Need to learn from and come back strong in the next test match.
England captain Joe Root said: It was a terrific team performance by our team to hold our nerves in such an exciting game. We did a good job of staying calm. After such an outstanding performance by both sides after 3 days, we gain lots of confidence going into the next match. Sam Curran was outstanding with the bat and ball also.
Man of the match Sam Curran said: Very happy to contribute to the team. Stokes was awesome who got big wickets that turned the match around. We need to play the same type of cricket in upcoming matches and playing in front of a big crowd was brilliant.
England takes 1-0 lead in the series. The second test will be played at Lords, London from 9th August.
