Jofra Archer took two wickets in England's loss in 1st T20I in Kolkata.
England pacer Jofra Archer has claimed that the Indian team, led by Suryakumar Yadav, was lucky to have won the first T20I in Kolkata on January 22. India won the first match of the five-T20I series by 7 wickets.
India won the toss and chose to bowl first due to dew. England only managed 132 runs with captain Jos Butter scoring 68 runs. India chased down the target in no time with Abhishek Sharma scoring 79 with 8 sixes and 5 fours, losing only 3 wickets in the process.
Archer finished with statistics of 2 for 21 in four overs as the rest of England's bowlers battled in Kolkata. Speaking after the game, the bowler stated that the circumstances were better for him at the end of the day and that the Indian hitters were fortunate to see a handful of balls land safely after being lofted in the air.
"I guess the conditions just favored me a little bit more than the other bowlers. The other bowlers bowled well, but the batters were extremely lucky. A few balls, well a lot of balls, went up in the air but didn’t go to hand and probably next game they all go to hand and they’re 40 for six," Archer was quoted by Daily Mail.
Apart from Abhishek Sharma's lost catch and a difficult chance to remove Tilak Verma, the Indian batters did not create many opportunities in the end.
Archer said that it was to important to keep their heads up as such losses can happen in India when the batters are going hard from the get-go.
"It’s just important to keep the head up, this happens a lot in India, especially in the IPL. The batters go hard, the bowlers go hard and we were just on the unlucky side of it,” Archer said.
When asked if England had a chance of winning the match at Eden Gardens, Archer believed that with a few early wickets, they may have been in contention.
"Yeah, you’ve always got to try in the beginning, because if you get them three or four down in the power play then usually teams bat differently in the middle. The only way you’re going to know is if you try. We gave it a try, but it didn’t work, so we will try again next game," said Archer.
The second T20I will be played in Chennai on Saturday, January 25.