45.5 overs England 259 (Buttler 60, Roy 41, Hardik 4-24, Chahal 3-60) vs India
But the move looked inspired, as did the selection of Mohammed Siraj to replace Jasprit Bumrah who was suffering from back spasms, when he opened with a double-wicket maiden to leave England reeling at 2-12 inside two overs.
Those runs were all down to Jason Roy, who struck Mohammed Shami for three fours in the first four balls of the match, crashing his first delivery through mid-off before clearing square leg and clipping another off his toes through midwicket.
Siraj struck with his third ball to remove Jonny Bairstow, who tried to work him to the leg side but managed only to skew the ball to mid-off without scoring. He then had Joe Root for a second-ball duck with one that moved away slightly and caught an outside edge which sailed to Rohit at second slip.
England kept up an aggressive approach via Roy and Ben Stokes, who clubbed Shami for back-to-back boundaries which meant Shami had conceded 33 runs after his first four overs.
Hardik replaced Siraj in the attack for the 10th over with immediate impact when he had an indecisive Roy out for 41 skying the ball straight up for Rishabh Pant to pouch the catch behind the stumps.
At the end of the 10-over powerplay, England were 66 for 3 and their scoring rate dried up as Hardik and Prashdh Krishna maintained a good length and when Hardik cramped Stokes, who advanced to a short ball and top-edged into the air for a return catch, he had 2 for 2 inside three overs.
Buttler and Moeen Ali had to hunker down, putting on just eight runs from the next 22 balls before Chahal and Siraj returned to the attack, Siraj twice striking Buttler heavy blows to the side of the helmet as he attempted to pull the short ball.
Siraj attempted to bounce Buttler again in the next over but didn’t quite get the same lift and Buttler was ready, swatting it powerfully away to the boundary in front of square leg. Buttler then helped himself to 10 runs off Chahal’s next over, starting with a sublime strike over wide long on, and Moeen passed 2000 ODI runs with two fours then a six, swung over backward square, all off Siraj.
Sixteen runs conceded off the next over, including sixes over long-on by both batters, and Chahal was out of the attack, replaced by Ravindra Jadeja, who broke their 75-run partnership with just his second ball when he had Moeen caught behind attempting to sweep one which spun and bounced onto the bat face for Pant to gather down the leg side.
Showing no ill-effects from those helmet-blows, Buttler settled into a 49-run stand with Liam Livingstone and brought up his fifty with a single through deep extra cover off Jadeja, having cleared the same region to find the boundary two balls earlier.
Hardik also struck Livingstone on the grille via his arm, prompting another helmet change, then Hardik and Jadeja combined twice in an over to reduce England to 199 for 7. Hardik’s short ball tempted Livingstone – who already had braces of fours and sixes in his 27 – into a hook towards deep-backward square, where Jadeja swallowed the catch just inside the boundary rope.
Three balls later, Buttler fell trying to dispatch another short ball to deep midwicket, only for Jadeja to come racing round from deep square and sliding to meet the ball, then rightly lapping up the applause for his excellent effort. That gave Hardik 4 for 18 off six overs.
Craig Overton and David Willey put on another 48 runs off 42 balls for the eighth wicket before Willey holed out to Surayakumar Yadav at long-off from the bowling of Chahal and, with 6.2 overs remaining, England looked in danger of being bowled out inside their allocation.
Overton struck Chahal down the ground and through Siraj’s hands for six at long off but, two balls later, he tried the same and found Virat Kohli standing in Siraj’s place and making no mistake. Capping off an eventful over, Chahal then bowled Reece Topley through the gate with a wonderful googly to end England’s innings with 4.1 overs to spare, having lost their last three wickets for 12 runs in 14 balls.
Valkerie Baynes is a general editor at ESPNcricinfo
