NEW DELHI: Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan feels that “pace was the difference” between the two teams as the Virat Kohli-led India lost the first T20I against England by eight wickets at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Friday.
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Chasing a paltry 125, Jason Roy and Jos Buttler starred with the bat scoring 49 and 28 respectively. In the end, Jonny Bairstow (26*) and Dawid Malan (24*) took the visitors over the line.
Taking to Twitter Pathan wrote, “What was the reason India lost the first t20 vs England? I think PACE was the difference.”

English pacers took six of the seven Indian wickets that fell. Jofra Archer returned with figures of 3-23 in his fours overs that earned him the ‘Player of the Match’ award. Mark Wood, Chris Jordan and all-rounder Ben Stokes picked a wicket each.
On the other hand, Indian seamers Shardul Thakur and comeback-man Bhuvneshwar Kumar failed to get any English wicket.

India had gone into the game with three frontline spinners — Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, and Yuzvendra Chahal — while England went in with four frontline seamers — Sam Curran, Jordon, Wood, Archer — besides all-rounder Stokes.
In the post-match press conference, Shreyas Iyer said that the plan of his side is always to play maximum spinners as it is their strength.
England skipper Eoin Morgan won the toss and asked the hosts to bat first. Iyer played a lone hand as he scored 67 runs while batting at number five and helped India post a score of 124/7 in the allotted twenty overs.

India and England will now lock horns in the second T20I at the same venue on Sunday.