Rain robs Durham of a classic after Abhishek, Dube fire India to 189

Abhishek Sharma was in the kind of form that makes you forget a losing series. Shreyas Iyer was steering the ship with a captain’s quiet authority. Shivam Dube was swinging hard at the death. And then, at the innings break, the heavens opened over Chester-le-Street and refused to close again. India’s 189 for 7 — the product of a rollicking team batting effort after a calamitous start — sat on the scoreboard like a statement that would never get an answer. The first T20I of the five-match series between England and India has been abandoned. Durham holds the same result for India’s third international game played there as it did for their first two: a washout after batting first.

Chester-le-Street, Durham: The Riverside Ground has seen enough damp English summers to know that a clear sky in early July is never guaranteed. On Wednesday evening, as Shreyas Iyer’s India posted what looked to be a chaseable but competitive 189 for 7 in 20 overs, the covers came out and never went back. England’s chase of 190 remained a non-starter. The first match of a five-match T20I series ends with no result, the points shared, and both sides left to ponder what might have been — one wondering whether 189 was enough, the other wondering if their three-man pace attack could have defended it.

Read More: Australia Women Beat West Indies to Reach T20 World Cup Final | SportsNewz

The Context: India Arrive Wounded

India came to Chester-le-Street carrying the bruises of a 0-2 series defeat to Ireland — two underwhelming batting performances in Belfast that raised fresh questions about T20 World Cup champions playing below the standard their title demands. Captain Shreyas Iyer had spoken pointedly in his pre-series press conference about the need to respond. The signs in the opening overs of this match were not encouraging.

Sanju Samson — enduring a wretched run of form that has seen his last three T20I scores read 5, 0, and 1 — fell in the second over, driving a Saqib Mahmood delivery straight to Tom Banton at backward point on his very first international appearance in over a year since returning from knee surgery. In the same over, a catastrophic running mix-up ended Ishan Kishan’s innings too, run out for a duck — his second run-out in consecutive innings. India were 6 for 2 inside three overs, and the Belfast nightmare was threatening to follow them across the Irish Sea.

Abhishek Sharma: The Man Who Changed Everything

What followed was extraordinary. Abhishek Sharma walked to the crease with his side in early crisis and proceeded to dismantle England’s bowling attack with the kind of clean, fearless striking that had made him such a vital cog in India’s T20 World Cup triumph. He reached his half-century off just 20 balls — blazing 4s and 6s at will, taking 21 runs off Mahmood’s fourth over alone with a series of pulls and lofted drives — before being trapped leg before by Sam Curran for 59 off 24 balls. The powerplay reading of 61 for 2 would have been far worse without him.

ALSO READ: Ireland beat India in T20I 2026 | SportsNewz

Crucially, Abhishek’s burst of 82 runs in partnership with Shreyas Iyer — built in just over seven overs — shifted the momentum of the innings irrevocably. Once he departed, Shreyas took over with the measured authority of a man determined to banish memories of his two modest outings against Ireland.

Shreyas Iyer: A Captain’s Knock

The India captain was, by his own design, a different proposition to Abhishek. Where the opener blazed, Shreyas anchored — rotating the strike smartly, finding gaps, preserving wickets in the middle overs and picking his moments to attack. A ferocious pull off Adil Rashid for four and a massive lofted six over extra cover off Luke Wood were the standout moments of an innings that was, above all, about substance. He brought up his ninth T20I half-century — and his first as India captain — off 38 balls, before Mahmood had the last word, trapping him leg before for 68 off 47 balls via a delivery that moved late into the stumps and beat his attempted slog across the line. India were 165 for 6 at that point, and in need of a final flourish.

Shivam Dube provided it. The big left-hander, promoted to finish, took the attack on emphatically in the closing overs — crashing 42 not out off just 21 balls in a cameo that lifted India from 165 to 189 and gave Iyer’s side something substantial to defend.

Mahmood’s Comeback, Rashid’s Craft

For England, the story of the innings was split between two very different bowlers. Saqib Mahmood — making his first international appearance in over a year after left knee surgery that wiped out his 2025 winter — finished with 3 for 33, a return that exceeded reasonable expectations for a man playing his first competitive cricket since a painful ODI against South Africa at Lord’s in September 2025. He was not faultless — Abhishek hit him for three boundaries in a row including two sixes when he went short — but his ability to take wickets at the start, middle and end of the innings was exactly the kind of signal England’s white-ball management was hoping to see.

Adil Rashid, at the other end of the experience spectrum, was quietly superb. The leg-spinner conceded only 39 runs from his four overs, clean bowling Harshit Rana off a sharp turner and troubling Dube with clever variations when a batter of that size and intent usually feasts in the final overs. His economy and control in the death gave England a genuine sense that 189 was gettable on this surface — a surface on which, as Michael Atherton noted on air, 180 plus represented a good score but not an unassailable one.

Rain Has the Final Say — Again

It did not matter. As the players left the field at the innings break, the persistent drizzle that had accompanied much of India’s innings intensified into something far heavier. The covers stayed on. The umpires conferred. The match referee consulted. At 7:30pm local time, with the sky offering no hope of a resumption, the first T20I was officially abandoned — the third time India have played an international at the Riverside Ground and the third time rain has had the last word.

For India, the abandonment was a mixed result. The batting response after Ireland was genuine and encouraging — particularly from Abhishek and Shreyas — but the top-order wobble that began the innings and the nagging absence of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, once again left out of the playing XI despite his build-up performances, left questions unanswered as the series moves on. For England, Mahmood’s return was the headline. Whether it can be sustained across a five-match series — with Jofra Archer and Josh Tongue rested for this opener — remains to be seen.

The second T20I moves to Manchester on July 4. Both sides will be hoping Old Trafford is more generous with its weather than Durham was on Wednesday night.

Match Result — 1st T20I, India tour of England 2026
Match abandoned — no result. India: 189/7, England: Did not bat

India Batting Highlights:

England Bowling Highlights:

Toss: India won, elected to bat
Next: 2nd T20I — Old Trafford, Manchester | Saturday, 4 July 2026