Jos Buttler endured a shaky start as England’s limited-overs captain after falling for a golden duck in his side’s 50-run defeat to India in the first Twenty20 of the series at Southampton. Buttler, who took over the mantle of white-ball captaincy from Eoin Morgan, fell to Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who welcomed the English skipper with a searing in-swinger in the first over. Also Read | Rohit Sharma surpasses Virat Kohli for massive India captaincy record during 1st T20I against England
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In his attempt to flick the delivery, Buttler fell perished for a nought, having the leg stump knocked after brushing the pads. The booming in-swinger preceded four deliveries to Jason Roy, who faced deliveries going away from him. It was Buttler's fourth duck in seven innings as captain of the limited-overs side.
Hardik Pandya then removed Dawid Malan (21) and Liam Livingston (0) in one over, leaving England tottering at 29 for three in the powerplay. He also ended Roy's painstaking stay in the middle when he had the opener caught at third man after a thick edge. The flamboyant Baroda all-rounder capped off a memorable outing by taking the wicket of Sam Curran.
{{/usCountry}}Hardik Pandya then removed Dawid Malan (21) and Liam Livingston (0) in one over, leaving England tottering at 29 for three in the powerplay. He also ended Roy's painstaking stay in the middle when he had the opener caught at third man after a thick edge. The flamboyant Baroda all-rounder capped off a memorable outing by taking the wicket of Sam Curran.
{{/usCountry}}Hardik finished with excellent figures of 4/33, thwarting the opposition with his full quota of four overs. He became only the fourth player from full member nations to score a fifty and take four wickets in a T20I match. In reply to India's imposing 198, England's innings folded at 148 in 19.3 overs.
"We were outplayed today. India bowled fantastically well, we couldn't get back from there. I thought we came back well with the ball in the second half. They were a little bit above the bar, but their ball swung quite consistently early on and got wickets,” said Buttler after the game.
Buttler also lauded Bhuvneshwar and Chris Jordan for their bowling display. Jordan eclipsed Adil Rashid to become England’s leading wicket-taker in T20Is, while Bhuvneshwar inflicted early damage and returned 1/10 in his three overs.
“Chris Jordan to come away with figures like that - he did fantastically well. Bhuvneshwar Kumar can swing it in most places. It swung more than usual, we probably had to hit one to the stands to reduce the swing (smiles),” said Buttler.
“There are a number of guys out due to schedule or injuries and given some boys some chances. Parkinson stood up to the challenge of bowling late in the innings.
"It was a great performance from ball one. There was an intent shown by the batters," said Rohit, who became the first captain to record 13 successive wins in T20Is. India can clinch the series at Edgbaston on Saturday before the finale at Trent Bridge on Sunday.