A delivery is called 'Banana Swinger' when the ball swings substantially from the moment it leaves the bowler's hand and follows a C-shaped path similar to a banana. A similar kind of delivery was bowled by India's premier white-ball pacer, Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the first T20I against England at The Rose Bowl, Southampton on Thursday. England captain Jos Buttler was at the receiving end of the delivery and had no clue how to tackle it, in the end, he got clean bowled. Bhuvneshwar Kumar scalped one wicket and conceded only 10 runs in his three-over spell.
BOWLED!
Bhuvneshwar Kumar gets the big wicket, Jos Buttler gone for duck #ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/NClQLHXFgp
— Doordarshan Sports (@ddsportschannel) July 7, 2022
"They bowled well with the new ball and put us under pressure. We couldn't get away from that point. We came back really well in the second half with the ball. Probably a bit above par and they swung the ball consistently. Bhuvneshwar Kumar can swing it in any conditions," said Buttler in a post-match presentation.
"Certainly the ball swung longer than I can remember in a T20 game. Maybe we needed to hit one in the stands and stop that swing. We know the boys have the talent and we want to see them on the big stage," he added.
An all-round performance from Hardik Pandya helped Team India defeat England by 50 runs in the first T20I of the three-match series, here at Southampton on Thursday. Hardik smashed 51 runs off 33 balls which took India's total to 198/8 in the first innings. Later, he went on to scalp four wickets and restricted England at 148. Apart from him, debutant Arshdeep Singh and spinner Yuzvendra Chahal scalped two wickets each. Suryakumar Yadav and Deepak Hooda scored 39 and 33 runs, respectively. For England, Moeen Ali and Chris Jordan scalped two wickets each, while Topley, Tymal Mills, and Parkinson took one wicket each.
Moeen Ali and Chris Jordan were the picks among the batters as they scored 36 and 26* runs, respectively. Both the teams will be squaring off for the second T20I on Saturday at Birmingham.