India defeated England in the first T20I encounter© AFP
England cricket team fast bowler Jofra Archer said Indian batters were lucky as his team suffered a huge loss in the first T20I encounter in Calcutta on Wednesday. Archer took 2 wickets for England but Indian batters reigned supreme with opener Abhishek Sharma hitting 8 sixes in his innings. Chasing just 132 balls, India made short work of the match and won the encounter with 43 balls remaining. Archer said the Indian batters were 'extremely lucky' as a number of balls went wrong high in the air but ended up in no man's land.
“I think the conditions favored me a little more than the other bowlers. The other bowlers bowled well, but the batters were very lucky. A few balls, well, a lot of balls, went in the air, but didn't go away to the hand and probably the next game they all go to the hand and they're 40 for six,” Archer said.
Archer further advised the batters to keep their heads up despite losing the match as such results can happen in India if the team adopts aggressive tactics.
“It's just important to keep your head up, this happens a lot in India, especially in the IPL. The batters are going hard, the bowlers are going hard and we were just unlucky.”
“Yes, you always have to try in the beginning because when you get them down three or four on the power play, usually the teams hit differently up the middle.”
“The only way you're going to know is to try. We tried it, it didn't work, so we'll try again next game,” Archer said.
England captain Jos Buttler attributed the crushing seven-wicket defeat to India in the first T20 International here to his batters' inability to “impose the game” when faced with quality spin bowling.
Coach Brendon McCullum started his new innings with a defeat against India after England collapsed against the spin trio of Varun Chakravarthy, Axar Patel and Ravi Bishnoi to fold for 132.
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