In the first test of the five-match bilateral series, England beat India by 28 runs at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad. Following the win, the Three Lions took the series lead by 1-0.
England captain Ben Stokes won the toss and elected to bat first, and the decision was looking formidable, as the openers Zak Crawley (20) and Ben Duckett (35) gave a brisk start, but the Indian bowlers soon turned the tides to their favours as the Indian spin trio Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, and Axar Patel started to take the wickets, and derailed the English innings, but the skipper Stokes (70) once again showed his resistance, but Jasprit Bumrah got rid of the English skipper at last. The English innings got all out on 246 runs.
In response, the Indian innings started explosively, as Yashasvi Jaiswal (80) and Rohit Sharma (24) showed their intent against the English bowling attack. Some phenomenal contributions from KL Rahul (86), Ravindra Jadeja (87), and Axar (44) helped the hosts to score 436 runs in the first innings and took the lead of 190 runs.
The visitors turned the fortunes into their favour with the blade in the second innings, and that made a crucial difference in this test. The real architect behind this turn around was Ollie Pope. The 26 years old batter played a brilliant knock and scored 196 runs, and built some partnerships with Ben Foakes (34), Rehan Ahmed (28), and Tom Hartley, that helped his side to take the lead of 230 runs.
The hosts while chasing the target, were not looking comfortable with the bat as the English debutant spinner Hartley dismantled the Indian innings at the City of Pearls, and took seven wickets in the second innings, and bundled out the Indian innings at 202 runs.
With the ball for India in this test, Ashwin took three wickets in both the innings, Jadeja took three and two wickets in first and second innings respectively, Axar secured two wickets in the first and one wicket in the second innings. Jasprit Bumrah showed his class once again with the ball and claimed two and four wickets respectively.
For England, Tom Hartley got two and seven wickets in both the innings respectively, Joe Root got four and one wicket in the first innings and second innings respectively, and Jack Leach got one wicket in both the innings. The leg spinner, Rehan Ahmed claimed two wickets in the first innings.
For his remarkable knock, Ollie Pope was adjudged Player of the Match.
Scorecard:
1st Innings
England : 246/10, Overs 64.3, Ben Stokes 70, Ravichandran Ashwin 3/68
India : 436/10, Overs 121, Ravindra Jadeja 87, Joe Root 4/79
2nd Innings
England: 420/10, Overs 102.1, Ollie Pope 196, Jasprit Bumrah 4/41
India: 202/10, Overs 69.2, Rohit Sharma 39, Tom Hartley 7/62