Three Indian batters scored half-centuries against England in the first ODI, but Shreyas Iyer's, the shortest of them all, might have been the standout knock.
At 19-2, there must have been more than a few nervous looks.
The chase wasn't massive. 249 the target, five runs an over – a mere trifle in most top-level ODIs these days. But the pitch wasn't quite playing ball. India pacer Harshit Rana said at the innings break that "the wicket is slightly double-paced, the odd ball stops on it." Axar Patel echoed the sentiment after the game: "When we were bowling, the ball was stopping a bit."
England themselves had gotten off to a flyer, scoring 75-0 inside nine overs, before Phil Salt bizarrely barbecued himself going for a third run. There was a mini-implosion, and they found themselves 77-3 in 10 overs.
The rest of the innings was somewhat of a slog. Jos Buttler and Jacob Bethell both scored fifties, and put on 59 runs in 87 balls for the fifth wicket. India's spinners, led admirably by Ravindra Jadeja, put the shackles on to knock them over for 248.
1st ODI, India vs England
vs
- Ball by ball Over
When India came out to chase, they were without Virat Kohli, but Yashasvi Jaiswal was making his much-anticipated ODI debut. He perished anticlimactically to a Jofra Archer peach though, and Rohit Sharma went soon after, mis-timing an attempted flick shot to hand a skier to Liam Livingstone. India now: 19-2.
There must have been nervous looks because the only way India would lose this match was by being bowled out; roughly, losing a wicket every five overs. They'd lost two in 5.2 by this point, and knew that another quick one would really put the dressing room on edge – the last thing required when batting on a pitch that isn't quite a road.
To make matters more complicated, the batter coming out was Shreyas Iyer. Based on how he is perceived, England's pace attack was almost built just to overwhelm him. Three tall, quick bowlers who could ram it into the wicket and aim at the body.
After Iyer faced four balls from Saqib Mahmood and one from Jofra Archer, England skipper Jos Buttler went for the jugular. He brought himself under the lid at forward short leg, and put in a leg slip.
Two balls later, Iyer stepped back and across, whacking a back of length delivery clocking 144 kph, over midwicket. The next ball, Archer dropped it even shorter but got his line wrong. It was well outside off stump, and the batter slashed it over third to get consecutive maximums.
Watch: Shreyas Iyer smashes Jofra Archer for back-to-back sixes in short-ball counterattack
His footwork was decisive throughout the innings. When Brydon Carse attempted to pitch it up, Iyer was on the charge, and peppered the off side field. Adil Rashid tossed the ball up, and he brought out the reverse slog. When the finger-spinner Jacob Bethell attempted to fire it in, Iyer opted to use the pace and collect his runs behind the wicket instead.
Even on the Bethell delivery which dismissed him, Iyer hadn't been slogging – just looking to lap it around the corner before he missed, and was trapped leg before.
Shreyas Iyer flips the script in Nagpur
Much of Iyer's white-ball game has been built around his ability to take down spin bowling. Before today, in ODIs he averaged 37.3 and struck at 98.7 against pace bowling. Not shabby, but put that up against his average/strike rate of 71.9/103.4 against spin bowling and it looks meagre.
He flipped the script in Nagpur, perhaps the most heartening part of his knock. The pace-spin split on the day was 40 (19) and 19 (17), a total role reversal. Iyer wasn't a one-trick pony, either. He was ruthless, every time England erred even marginally either side of a good length.
Shreyas Iyer: Breakdown of scoring by bowling type and length, 1st ODI vs ENG
| Length | Pace | Spin | Total |
| Overpitched | 8 (2) | 4 (1) | 12 (3) |
| Full | 6 (2) | 3 (4) | 9 (6) |
| Good | 8 (6) | 0 (5) | 8 (11) |
| Back of length | 8 (7) | 7 (5) | 15 (12) |
| Short | 10 (2) | 5 (2) | 15 (4) |
| Total | 40 (19) | 19 (17) | 59 (36) |
In a small chase, Iyer played his role to perfection. In the six overs he faced, he scored at almost exactly twice the required run rate. It broke the game open, and England were always playing catch-up after that. His partnership with Shubman Gill not only steadied the Indian ship, but simultaneously sent it full steam ahead.
Iyer said to the host broadcaster after the match that he wouldn't have played this game, if Virat Kohli had been fit. That would have been incredible before this knock, and is unthinkable after (granted, it may not have been permanent – India may simply have wanted a look at Yashasvi Jaiswal ahead of the Champions Trophy).
Either way, it was a solid reminder of Iyer's prowess in the 50-over format. It's something he sorely needs, given he isn't picked regularly in the other two formats. He's perhaps even forgotten to the extent that his all-timer of a 2023 World Cup campaign – 533 runs @ 66.3, SR 113.2 – is rarely a topic of discussion.
Gill won the Player of the Match award for his 87, and the No.4-for-a-day's partnership of 108 with Axar (52) was what put the seal on India's win. But it was Iyer who shone before them, setting up the chase immaculately.
He has been derisively dubbed a 'dance master', a play on his one-time fondness for posting Instagram dance reels and his 'dancing' when faced with hostile, short-pitched bowling. But between him and Gill, the two who starred for India today were the Prince from Punjab, and the captain of Punjab – who made England dance to their tunes.
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