Cricket: England outplay India in their own backyard
Opting to bowl, India dished out a shoddy fielding and bowling performance — except for Renuka Singh — to allow England post 197/6 and then could only score 158/6 in response to lose the match and concede 1-0 lead to England in the series.
Only Shafali Verma (52 off 42 balls) could score big in the Indian run chase. Captain Harmanpreet Kaur (26) and Richa Ghosh (21) failed to convert their starts as India failed to mount a serious challenge to the big target.
India’s chase took early blows when Smriti Mandhana (6) was cleaned up by Nat Sciver-Brunt in the third over and Freya Kemp struck with her first delivery, getting Jemimah Rodrigues (4) caught behind in the sixth over.
But despite losing two key batters, India were 53/2 in the powerplay and looked set for having a crack at the big chase until England’s spinners came into fray.
Coming off an injury lay-off, there were no visible signs of struggle for the parsimonious Sophie Ecclestone, who cleaned up India skipper Harmanpreet (26 off 21 balls, 3x4s, 1x6s) when her partnership with Shafali started to threaten the visitors.
Richa Ghosh (21) and Shafali provided a glimmer of hope for India with their brisk 26-ball 40-run stand for the fourth wicket but Sarah Glenn broke their stand to peg the hosts back again.
Earlier, marauding fifties by Danni Wyatt (75) and Sciver-Brunt (77) powered England Women to 197/6 after early setbacks.
