
Nitish Kumar Reddy came up with a stunning dive to end English skipper Jos Buttler’s innings in the first T20I of a five-match series at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Coming to bat at number three Buttler led from the front and played a captain’s knock of 68(44) runs after the visitors lost early wickets. However, as Buttler was looking to accelerate the innings during death overs, he tried hitting Varun Chakravarthy for a big shot. However, Nitish Kumar took a diving catch at square leg as England lost a big wicket at the crucial stage of the innings.
Jos Buttler smashed Varun Chakravarthy for a six on the first ball of the 17th over. On the very next delivery,, Buttler attempted to hit another big shot against Chakrvarthy but couldn’t time it well. After that, Nitish Kumar Reddy came running towards the ball and dived forward to complete a stunning catch as Buttler got out after scoring 68 runs off 44 balls hitting eight fours and two sixes.
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England give India target of 133 runs in 1st T20I
Talking about the match, the Indian bowlers dominated English batters in the first T20I at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Coming to bat first after losing the toss, England were bowled out for 132 runs in 20 overs. The visitors got the first shock in the very first over after Arshdeep Singh dismissed Phil Salt for a duck. An over later, the left-arm pacer struck again to give India a second breakthrough. After that, Varun Chakravarthy ended up taking two wickets in the 8th over.
English skipper Jos Buttler was taking the innings forward from one end as wickets were falling regularly from the other end. Buttler top scored with 68(44) runs, however, none of the other batters could reach 20 runs as England lost all 10 wickets at the score of 132 runs after 20 overs. For India, Varun Chakrvarthy took 3 wickets by conceding 23 runs in four overs, while Arshdeep Singh registered figures of 2/17. Apart from that, Hardik Pandya and Axar Patel also scalped two wickets each. India now need 133 runs in 20 overs to take a lead of 1-0 in the T20I series.