Shreyas Iyer bats well but India struggle to 124/7 in opening T20I against England
Ahmedabad, Mar 12: Indian batsmen struggled to score freely before Shreyas Iyer showed the way with a dogged 67-run knock that took the hosts to 124 for seven against England in the opening Twenty20 International, here on Friday.
The home batsmen never got the momentum going in the series-opener as England's pace-heavy attack, led by Mark Wood, used the extra bounce effectively to trouble them.
Most of the Indian batsmen went for flashy shots when placement would have served them well. The track had varied pace and required patience from batsmen.
Iyer though gauged the nature of the pitch quickly and adjusted his game accordingly, playing a sensible innings that helped them cross the 100-run mark.
Laced with eight boundaries and a six, and coming off 48 balls, it is Iyer's best T20 knock. He fell in the last over.
England surprised India by opening the attack with leg-spinner Adil Rashid, who was not only economical but also dismissed Virat Kohli (0) after KL Rahul (1) dragged one back onto his stumps from Jofra Archer (3/23).
Feeling the heat, Shikhar Dhawan -- who got the opportunity since Rohit Sharma has been rested -- attempted to break the shackles with a flashy shot off Wood but completely missed the line to see his timber disturbed.
In-form batsman Rishabh Pant (21) was prompted to number four. He struck the ball clean, which included a reverse-flick off Archer for a six, but the England bowlers kept it tight for the home team, which was tottering at 34 for three in eight overs.
Pant and Iyer added 28 runs for the fourth wicket before the former hit one straight to Jonny Bairstow off Ben Stokes.
That brought Hardik Pandya to the crease, who true to his style, looked for some big hits but could not do much.
The visiting players wore black armbands in memory of former cricketer Joey Benjamin, who died Wednesday.
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A strong magnitude 6.1 earthquake shakes Indonesia's Java Island, felt in Jakarta
Jakarta, Apr 27: A strong magnitude 6.1 earthquake shook the southern part of Indonesia's main island of Java on Saturday, but there were no immediate reports of injury or significant property damage.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake struck 102 kilometers (63 miles) south of Banjar city at a depth of 68.3 kilometers (42.4 miles). There was no tsunami warning.
High-rises in the capital Jakarta swayed for around a minute and two-story homes shook strongly in the West Java provincial capital of Bandung and in Jakarta's satellite cities of Depok, Tangerang, Bogor and Bekasi. The quake was also felt in other cities in West Java, Yogyakarta and East Java province, according to Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysical Agency.
The agency warned of possible aftershocks.
Earthquakes are frequent across the sprawling archipelago nation, but they are rarely felt in Jakarta.
Indonesia, a seismically active archipelago of 270 million people, is prone to seismic upheaval because of its location on major geological faults known as the Pacific “Ring of Fire.”
A magnitude 5.6 earthquake in 2022 killed at least 602 people in West Java's Cianjur city. It was the deadliest in Indonesia since a 2018 quake and tsunami in Sulawesi killed more than 4,300 people.
In 2004, an extremely powerful Indian Ocean quake set off a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries, most of them in Indonesia's Aceh province.
