Watch: Varun Chakravarthy’s twin strikes peg England back in 1st T20I

Varun Chakravarthy has put pressure on the visitors with a two-wicket eighth over in England’s innings in the first Twenty20 International of the five-match series. In the sixth over of the match, captain Suryakumar Yadav brought on Chakravarthy. In that, he gave up just eight runs.

It was after the mystery spinner struck gold that he was given another over. Chakravarthy remained composed even after Harry Brook sliced him between short third man and backward point off the second delivery of his second over. The ball trickled onto Brook’s stumps, and he could only manage an inside-edge to his pad off the next delivery.

After a few deliveries, Varun Chakravarthy gave Liam Livingstone a fizzed one. When there was no turn, Livingstone played for it.

Timber strikes ✅

A double-wicket over ✅

Varun Chakaravarthy picks up two! 👏 👏

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— BCCI (@BCCI) January 22, 2025

As of this writing, England has finished 17 overs at 110/8. The visitors’ lone source of strength has been Jos Buttler. The English white-ball captain had been disappointed by the other batters’ inability to play the situation. Buttler’s lone 68 (44) has helped England reach their target score.

Conversely, India has been clinical from the beginning. After winning the toss, Arshdeep Singh made the perfect decision to bowl first. He became India’s top wicket-taker in Twenty20 Internationals after dismissing Phil Salt and Ben Duckett in consecutive overs to boost his powerplay wicket total. In what is so far proving to be an excellent performance for the Indian team, every bowler was frugal, with the exception of Hardik Pandya, who proved to be costly.