London, July 12 (FN Agency) Jasprit Bumrah’s imposing pace bowling and captain Rohit Sharma’s destructive fifty helped a commanding India razed down a shoddy England by 10 wickets in the first match of the three-match ODI series at the Oval on Tuesday to take a 1-0 series lead. The Indian boys outplayed England in all departments as they skittled them out for 110 in 25.3 overs, their lowest ODI total against England, with Bumrah hogging up six wickets for just 19 runs and then romping home in 18.4 overs. Rohit and Shikhar Dhawan, who scored unbeaten 76 and 31, respectively, ravaged the English bowlers to take India home. The English pacers sent short-pitch stuff, but Rohit was equally ready for the challenge as he smoked them into the stands at fine leg for entertainment. Rohit created a record or most 50-plus score by any visiting batsman 14 times in England, humbling Rahul Dravid, Virat Kohli and Kane Williamson, who had done the same on 13 occasions.
Shikhar was off-key at the beginning owing to lack of match time, but then asserted himself towards the end as he found his groove. Earlier, Bumrah and Mohammed Shami ran amok as England were bundled out for 110. Both the pacers shared nine wickets between them. Bumrah joined the 6-wickets club, which included Stuart Binny, Anil Kumble, Ashish Nehra and company, as he was in full steam in his opening spell. He hardly gave any room for English team batters as he removed their top three in quick succession. Bumrah conceded just nine runs in his first five overs, of which two were maidens. He also dismissed Liam Livingstone in this spell. Bumrah ended with figures of 6/19 in 7.2 overs, the third-best for India in ODI cricket. Stuart Binny (6/4 vs Bangladesh, 2014) and Anil Kumble (6/12 vs West Indies, 1993) occupy the top two spots on the list among Indians.
Shami (3/31) became the fastest Indian bowler to claim 150 wickets in his 80th ODI. He surpassed former Indian seamer Ajit Agarkar, who took 97 matches to achieve the milestone. Overall, Shami is the joint-third-fastest to this milestone with Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan followed with Mitchell Starc (77) and Saqlain Mushtaq (78). For England, Jos Buttler was their top scorer (30). England started awfully as Bumrah and Shami put to good use the overcast conditions, reducing the hosts to 17/4 in a jiffy. Four of the top-6 England batsmen including Jason Roy, Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Liam Livingston were sent packing for ducks, while Bumrah claimed Jonny Bairstow who made just seven off 20 balls. Buttler rescued the England innings, but Shami sent him back after he had made 30 off 32 balls which included six boundaries. England avoided the insult of recording the lowest ODI total by stitching a 35-run 9th wicket stand. The previous lowest ever ODI total for the hosts was 86.