Indian captain Virat Kohli credited England for their performance in the first T20I in Kanpur on Thursday.

The visitors turned in an impressive all-round performance to defeat India by seven wickets and took a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

Speaking at the post-match presentation, Kohli said that England played the better cricket and deserved to win the game.

“England played better cricket than us today, and they are deserving winners. Credit to their bowlers, they bowled good hard lengths with extra pace and bounce,”said Kohli.

“We would have liked to execute that as well, but we were about 30-35 runs short on that wicket.”

The 28-year-old hailed the performance of leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, who picked up two wickets in the first over.

“I have a lot of confidence in him (Chahal), he plays with me at RCB. He has wicket-taking ability as well. He is confident about his skills. He’s a youngster showing character,” said the Indian skipper.

The two sides will now move to Nagpur for the second T20I on Sunday.