Fastest 50 to 4-wicket haul: Krunal Pandya, Prasidh Krishna make dream debut

Debutants Krunal Pandya and Prasidh Krishna made full use of the opportunity on Tuesday, when they gave record breaking performances in India’s 66-run victory over world champions England in the first ODI of the three-match series.

While Shikhar Dhawan, who was dropped after the first T20I, scored 98 and was adjudged the Man of the Match,  Krunal (58 not out off 31) smashed the fastest fifty by a debutant to boost India’s total to 317.

At 135 for no loss in the 15th over, with Jason Roy (46 off 35) and Jonny Bairstow (94 off 55) going strong, England seemed to be running away with the chase before Krishna (4/54) and Shardul Thakur (3/37) shared seven wickets between them to script a winning comeback.

The 25-year-old Krishna’s figures were the best by an Indian debutant as England’s innings ended at 251 in 42.1 overs.

“It didn’t start off well, and they came hard at us because we bowled poorly, but we had belief,” said the Karnataka bowler, who had drawn high praise from skipper Virat Kohli long before making the squad.

Considering the nature of the surface, it was a commendable effort from the Indian bowlers, who carried on from the T20 series to defend gettable targets with remarkable ease.

Krishna, who leaked 37 runs in his first three overs, came back strongly and troubled the batsmen with his ability to generate extra bounce.