Source: ECB

India clinch ODI series with win over England

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India clinched the Paytm Women’s ODI series with a comfortable seven-wicket victory in the second ODI against England in Mumbai.

Batting first, England were bowled out for 161, with Nat Sciver’s 85 the only innings of note. India’s opening bowling pair of Jhulan Goswami and Shikha Pandey were hugely impressive, sharing eight wickets between them.

England’s total would have been far less had it not been for the brilliance of Nat Sciver and the stubbornness of Alex Hartley (0*) who put on 42 for the final wicket, a record for England in ODIs.

Sciver was one of England’s few performers with the bat in Friday’s first clash, and she continued in the same vein today, putting on 30 with Tammy Beaumont, 49 with the returning Lauren Winfield and 42 with Hartley.

It showed that partnerships were key and India demonstrated as such when it was their turn to bat. Despite losing an early wicket, Smriti Mandhana and Punam Raut came together to take the sting out of a potentially tricky chase.

Mithali Raj and Deepti Sharma were unbeaten at the close, as India won by seven wickets.

A disappointing result and series loss for Heather Knight’s side, they’ll hope to salvage some pride in Wednesday’s final game – as well as two ICC Women’s Championship points – before heading to Guwahati for the IT20 series.

Heather Knight: “It’s really frustrating. We haven’t shown what we can do this series. We’ve started quite slowly, obviously with the bat today – losing three early wickets made it very hard for us.

“I think Nat Sciver batted superbly today. What an innings that was, she really didn’t deserve to be on the losing side. She got us up to a score that made us think we were in with a sniff but when you’re defending 160 you need a lot of things to go your way and unfortunately it wasn’t to be.

“We’ve got one more ODI and it’s not a dead rubber at all because there are ICC Women’s Championship points up for grabs, so we really want to put in an improved performance.

“I know the way we’ve played is not through a lack of effort. The girls have trained brilliantly and put everything into the games.”

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Courtesy of the ECB