India national cricket team spinner Axar Patel produced a brilliant bowling performance in the opening match of the three-match ODI series against the England national cricket team at Edgbaston on July 14. The left-arm spinner took four wickets to create history in ODI cricket.
England looked set to put almost 300 runs on the board in the first ODI against India, but Axar turned the game around in the death overs. The left-arm spinner performed brilliantly with the ball for the Blue Team; Akshar Patel took 4 wickets for 62 runs.
Axar Patel weaves net around England and achieves rare Indian ODI record
Axar Patel has achieved a rare feat with his amazing spell. His figures of 4/62 at Edgbaston are now the best bowling performance of his ODI career. Additionally, Axar became the second Indian spinner to take four wickets between 41 and 50 overs in an ODI innings.
The only other Indian spinner to do so was Ravindra Jadeja, who achieved the feat against Sri Lanka in 2013. However, Jadeja is not part of the ongoing three-match ODI series in England. Meanwhile, Jasprit Bumrah completed 150 ODI wickets with the wicket of Harry Brook in the first ODI.
India shocked England after a great start at Edgbaston
England, who came to bat first at Edgbaston, had to face bad batting after a brilliant start. The hosts were scoring 61 runs without losing any wicket, but the Indian bowlers responded strongly and restricted them to 107/6 at one stage on the difficult Edgbaston surface.
When England looked to be in serious trouble, Joe Root and Liam Dawson came together and played a fighting innings. He added 121 runs for the seventh wicket and brought England back into the match. Root played a composed innings of 76 runs off 76 balls, while Dawson made his highest ODI score of 68 runs off 83 balls.
Their partnership gave England hope of finishing with a total above 270, but Axar Patel dismissed the lower-order batsmen one after the other as they could only muster 258 runs on the board. Meanwhile, KL Rahul’s one-handed screamer sent Will Jacks to the pavilion in the first ODI.
Indian bowlers dominate England’s batting order
Earlier, Jasprit Bumrah, returning after a six-week workload break and playing his first ODI after the 2023 World Cup final, bowled with great control. Even though Bumrah took only one wicket, he gave away just 31 runs in nine overs and bowled 36 dot balls.
Young left-arm fast bowler Gurnoor Brar made a strong comeback after an expensive start. He put England on the backfoot by dismissing Ben Duckett and Jacob Bethel in the same over. Prasidh Krishna also impressed by taking big wickets of Jos Buttler and Sam Curran.
Although Root and Dawson battled back with a brilliant partnership, Axar Patel’s performance was one of the finest bowling performances of his ODI career, ending his hopes of getting close to the 300 mark.
Notably, the last time a team successfully defended a target of less than 300 runs in a full 50-over ODI at Edgbaston was during the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy, when South Africa defended a target of less than 236 runs against Pakistan.