Indian pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar was at his best in the first T20 International (T20I) of the ongoing three-match series against England at the Rose Bowl in Southampton. The ‘swing king’ displayed his vintage avatar and got rid of English skipper Jos Buttler with a beauty in the opening over of the hosts’ chase of 199.
The exceptional over started with a barrage of outswingers which opener Jason Roy found so difficult to deal with. Roy, however, got off the mark with a timid single off the fourth delivery. Buttler was then on strike, and it appeared that he expected another outswinger from Bhuvneshwar. But, the Indian pacer bamboozled Buttler with an inswinger which shattered the defence of the batter as he was cleaned up on a golden duck.
Here is the video:
BOWLED!
Bhuvneshwar Kumar gets the big wicket, Jos Buttler gone for duck 🙌 #ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/NClQLHXFgp
— Doordarshan Sports (@ddsportschannel) July 7, 2022
Buttler’s dismissal opened the floodgates as England kept losing wickets on regular intervals to get bundled out for just 148, losing the contest by 50 runs. After the game, the England captain was in all praise for Bhuvneshwar, admitting that the Indian pacer was just outstanding in the series opener.
“We were outplayed today. India bowled fantastically well, we couldn’t get back from there. 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,” Buttler had said after the match.
“Chris Jordan to come away with figures like that – he did fantastically well. Bhuvneshwar Kumar can swing it on most places. It swung more than usual, we probably had to hit one to the stands to reduce the swing (smiles),” he added.
