India 133 for 3 (Abhishek 79, Samson 26, Archer 2-21) beat England 132 (Buttler 68, Varun 3-23, Arshdeep 2-17) by seven wickets
India brutally cast aside England in the first T20I at Eden Gardens, as Abhishek Sharma's 79 from just 34 deliveries munched a meagre target of 133 with 43 balls to spare.
Abhishek's third fifty-plus score in the format capped off an accomplished all-round performance from the hosts. A combination of Arshdeep Singh's 2 for 17 up top and Varun Chakravarthy's 3 for 23 through the middle dismissed the tourists for 132, scuppering their attempts to mark Brendon McCullum's first match in charge with the attacking verve he craves.
But for Jos Buttler's 68 - his 26th T20I fifty - things could have been worse. The 34-year-old's evening had begun by losing a crucial toss to Suryakumar Yadav. With the 7pm start in Kolkata, moisture was in the air throughout, and dew a factor as early as the first innings. Both captains wanted to bowl, and only one got the chance.
Arshdeep made the best of those early conditions, removing openers Phil Salt and Ben Duckett in his first 11 deliveries. Those dismissals took the left-arm seamer to 97 in T20Is, leapfrogging Yuzvendra Chahal as India's top wicket-taker in the format.
By the time Buttler departed in the 17th over, he had provided 68 out of the 109 on the board, with Harry Brook the only batter to reach double figures before Jofra Archer pitched in with 12 from No.9.
Brook's 17 was part of a stand of 48 with Buttler, the vice-captain and captain setting about a rebuild that was ended by Varun's googlies. The 33-year-old bowled Brook and Liam Livingstone in the space of three deliveries to turn that back to rubble. His third was Buttler, holing out to deep square leg.
Whatever little jeopardy there was in the chase, it was restricted to just the fifth over, when Archer removed both. Sanju Samson - who had done the early running - and Surayakumar for a duck in four deliveries. Archer, who bowled his four overs on the bounce having opened the innings, was comfortably the pick of England's bowlers with 2 for 21. By contrast, Gus Atkinson was taken apart for 38 runs across his two overs, with his first blitzed for 22 by Samson.
The onus was then on Abhishek, who was put down by Adil Rashid on 29 off 16. The left-hander would bring up his half-century just four balls later.
Though Rashid would eventually get his man, India had all but established a 1-0 lead in this five-match series. A top-edged four from Tilak Varma off Mark Wood's bouncer off the penultimate ball of the 13th over confirmed it.
Arshdeep Singh sets the tone
Before England were choked through the middle by a three-pronged spin attack, they were clipped up top by the lone full-time quick. Since debuting in 2022, Arshdeep Singh has been a new-ball banker for India's shortest format. Consistently devastating and devastatingly consistent.
It was fitting that on the night he became India's leading T20I wicket-taker, he reinforced his credentials as one of the format's leading seamers in an opening three-over spell of 2 for 10. Movement away and up off a good length did for Salt, who could only sky a leading edge, was followed by nip the other way that left the left-handed Duckett for a similar demise.
Of those initial 18 deliveries, a remarkable 12 were dots which saw him get the better of Buttler and Brook without reward. On another day, their feelers outside off stump may have resulted in edges, bringing more joy Arshdeep's way. But rather than bemoan missing out on those extra notches in the wicket column, he seemed happy enough with his work, having opened the door for his spinners.
Familiar failings
There is no shame in falling foul of India's spinners in any format, least of all when they are operating at home. But there was a haunting familiarity about England's failure at Eden Gardens - and it has nothing to do with what happened here in that final in 2016.
Eight years on from that heartbreak, England were roughed up in 2024's semi-final in Guyana, as Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja combined to take 6 for 58 from 11 overs. Only Axar remained this time around, but the results were about the same - 12 overs of web-spinning prising out five for the concession of just 67.
It is easy to say the likes of Brook, Livingstone and Jacob Bethell should have taken cues from Buttler, particularly his ability to pick length. But Buttler's vast IPL experience and superior ability makes that hard to replicate. Credit belongs to the bowlers, particularly Varun. Despite the grass on the surface, the wristspinner was unperturbed. His IPL nous came to the fore at a ground where he has taken 24 wickets at 22.20 from 16 appearances.
A holding pattern of deliveries just short of a length kept the ball out of hitting arcs, and he was not pre-occupied with spinning the ball past the edge - even though he beat the insides of Brook's and Livingstone's. "Bowling side spin, I cannot beat batsmen with sidespin. The only way I can beat batsmen with bounce," said Varun while nursing a deserved Player-of-the-Match award. Perhaps most galling for England is he rated his display a humble "seven out of 10".
India's cleaner hands
Bethell's drop of Abhishek did not matter, charging in from deep midwicket, tracking the ball all the way only to see it spill through his hands as he dived forwards.
A ball later, Abhishek was caught at long off. An over later, India had confirmed their win. But the sight of one of England's best fielders fall short in that moment highlighted the gap between the two fielding efforts on Wednesday evening.
It would have been one hell of a take, but still not the best of the night. That honour belonged to Nitish Kumar Reddy, who pulled off a tougher version of Bethell's effort, sprinting in at a greater rate of knots and intercepting the ball so close to the ground that the umpires asked for a second look. Buttler, whose charge was halted by that brilliance, had already made it back to the dugout when the television umpire finally gave it the all-clear.
Full report to follow…