English pace-bowling all-rounder Ben Stokes shined on the fourth day as the hosts England snatched a 31-run victory over the visitors India in the first Test match of the five-match Test series at Edgbaston (Birmingham).
While India needed to reach 194 for victory, they only managed to score 162 runs before losing their all wickets.
India began the day on their overnight score 110/5 but mostly struggled against the English bowlers. In the very first over of the day, experienced James Anderson sent Dinesh Karthik (20) back to the pavilion who added only two runs on the morning.
While Hardik Pandya played some reliable shots, Kohli completed another brilliant half-century. But soon, Stokes came with the dangerous spell and dismissed Kohli (51) and Mohammed Shami (0) in his first over of the day.
Hardik Pandya tried hard with the lower-order batsmen but failed on his mission. English leg-spinner Adil Rashid dismissed Ishant Sharma (11) after trapping lbw.
Stokes ended the game after picking up another wicket in the day by dismissing Pandya for 31 runs as India was bundled out for just 162 runs. Skipper Kohli again scored the highest runs in the Indian innings with the 51-run knock while Pandya was the only other batsman in that innings to reach the 30-run mark.
Ben Stokes picked up four wickets and ended the innings with the bowling figure of 14.2-2-40-4. Experienced pacers James Anderson (2/50) and Stuart Broad (2/43) bagged two wickets each while the left-arm young pacer Sam Curran (1/18) and leg-spinner Adil Rashid (1/9) got one wicket each.
With this victory in the first Test, England leads the five-match Test series by 1-0. Young cricketer Sam Curran won the Player of the Match award for his impressive performances with both the ball and bat.
Brief Scores: England – 287 (Joe Root 80, Jonny Bairstow 70; Ravichandran Ashwin 4/62) & 180 (Sam Curran 63, Jonny Bairstow 28; Ishant Sharma 5/51)
India – 274 (Virat Kohli 149, Shikhar Dhawan 26; Sam Curran 4/74) & 162 (Virat Kohli 51, Hardik Pandya 31; Ben Stokes 4/40)
Result – England won by 31 runs
Here are some Twitter reactions:
What a Test match 🙌
— Eoin Morgan (@Eoin16) August 4, 2018
Awesome start! Gonna be a good series this…. 😁 #1-0 #ENGvIND Great work boys ! 🏏
— Sarah Taylor (@Sarah_Taylor30) August 4, 2018
Thrilling test match but England collectively were much better. Sam Curran's contribution with the bat yesterday eventually turned out to be the difference. India will look for more contributions from the other batsmen #ENGvIND
— Mohammad Kaif (@MohammadKaif) August 4, 2018
Standing ovation for Kohli. The whole crowd recognises a champion. Also: I have no fingernails. #ENGvIND
— Melinda Farrell (@melindafarrell) August 4, 2018
If Virat Kohli had half the support Sachin Tendulkar had (Ganguly, Laxman, Dravid, Sehwag etc), Kohli would have won India many away Tests. #EngvInd
— Mazher Arshad (@MazherArshad) August 4, 2018
Zimbabwe-India in 1983 CWC:
Indian Captain: Kapil Dev (175*)
Losing team player: Kevin Curran (73 & 3/63)England-India in Birmingham Test, 2018:
Indian Captain: Virat Kohli (149 & 51)
Man of the Match: Sam Curran (87 & 5/92)Sam Curran is the son of Kevin Curran. #ENGvIND
— Sampath Bandarupalli (@SampathStats) August 4, 2018
The charm of test cricket ✨ #ENDvIND
— Mayanti Langer Binny (@MayantiLanger_B) August 4, 2018
So for the critics and the self doubters re Adil Rashid that he should NOT play Test Cricket because he doesn’t play Country 4 Day cricket….
Mmmmmmmm 🤔— Dean Jones AM (@ProfDeano) August 4, 2018
https://twitter.com/AlexHales1/status/1025706002354765826
Such an exciting game this has been! All hopes on Hardik now to take India through. He needs good support from Umesh. #ENGvIND
— R P Singh रुद्र प्रताप सिंह (@rpsingh) August 4, 2018
TEST CRICKET👌🏻🏆🏏#ENGvsIND
— Dan Walker (@mrdanwalker) August 4, 2018
Time to drop all top order players apart from Kohli and get some fresh talent. They won't do worse than this bunch of overpaid, spineless flat track bullies. #ENGvsIND
— Anuj Singhal अनुज सिंघल (@_anujsinghal) August 4, 2018
What a beautiful test match going on. Who says test cricket is not fun?????? #ENGvsIND
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) August 3, 2018
LOVED IT. 🏴🏏#TestCricket #England #India #EngVsInd pic.twitter.com/g0CbMFxnja
— Stuart Broad (@StuartBroad8) August 4, 2018
https://twitter.com/KaptaanFearless/status/1025712577391648769
https://twitter.com/shriktweets/status/1025699457399054336
Playing with 10 tailenders was a bad idea to begin with#ENGvsIND
— Piyush Sharma (@misterpiyush) August 4, 2018
https://twitter.com/meinincubator/status/1025707708698177536
