Chris Jordan shines for England but India set challenging target in Southampton

Jos Buttler is taking charge of his first match as England’s full-time white-ball captain.

Chris Jordan impressed for England (Mark Pain/PA) (PA Wire)

Chris Jordan impressed at the outset of the Jos Buttler era but the rest of England’s bowlers struggled to contain a rampant India in the first Twenty20 at the Ageas Bowl.

Jordan had a modest winter, particularly struggling at the death, but he is a mainstay of this England T20 side and his two for 23 went some way to keeping India under 200 after they decided to bat first.

Buttler, in his first match as full-time England white-ball captain after succeeding Eoin Morgan, frequently changed his bowlers – using seven in total – as India racked up 198 for eight.

Hardik Pandya top-scored for India with 51 from 33 balls and there were brisk cameos from Deepak Hooda (33 off 17 balls) and Suryakumar Yadav (39 off 19) after Rohit Sharma had ignited the touch paper.

Rohit was absent for the Test between these sides after contracting Covid-19 but made up for lost time with five fours in his 24 off 14 deliveries, as India adopted a bullish approach with the bat after winning the toss under gloriously sunny skies on the south coast.

Buttler had stressed the importance of new-ball wickets and gambled on the experience of Moeen Ali, making his 50th T20 appearance for England, after Sam Curran and Reece Topley had leaked 20 from the first two overs.

Rohit was full of intent and greeted the off-spinner’s arrival with successive sweeps for two fours before being left flat-footed and nicking off, undone by a quicker ball and a bit of drift.

Topley unsettled Ishan Kishan with a couple of bumpers before the opening batter top-edged to a back-pedalling Matt Parkinson at short fine-leg off Moeen, who had moments earlier been left craning his neck skywards twice after being shovelled back over his head by Hooda.

Yadav capitalised on the width offered by Parkinson to crunch a couple of fours and although Jordan’s clever use of pace saw off Hooda, deceived by a 69mph slower ball and offering a simple catch, India’s charge showed no sign of slowing down.

Hardik Pandya top-scored for India (Mark Pain/PA) (PA Wire)

India were going along at more than 10 an over, bringing up three figures prior to halfway, before Yadav moved across his stumps and used Tymal Mills’ extra pace against him, helping him on his way for six.

Yadav was particularly aggressive but was flicked on the thumb by Jordan’s bumper to depart, although only after Buttler wisely decided on sending the umpire’s original ‘not out’ decision upstairs.

England might have seen the back of the busy Hardik when he charged Parkinson and missed a full-blooded hack, but the ball tickled his back pad, wrong-footing Buttler, who was unable to complete the stumping.

Axar Patel had been promoted in the order with licence to continue the attack and added 17 off 12 before slapping into the deep to give Parkinson some overdue succour.

Pandya brought up a 30-ball fifty off the next delivery after clearing long-off before slashing a short and wide delivery to deep point, while Jordan conceded just five in his penultimate over as India’s seemingly relentless charge began to slow.

Dinesh Karthik cracked a couple of fours in the final over bowled by Mills but was dismissed when Sam Curran took an outstanding catch diving full-length to meet the ball.

But India still set England a challenging target to win the first of three T20s.