England v India – 3rd ODI, Worcester
Rain delayed the start till 12.30; a 47-over game was decreed. Both sides were unchanged.
From the second over where Tammy Beaumont swished across the line in error, England could never pull away to safety. Mithali Raj became the highest scorer across all formats as she led her side to victory in the early evening.
Beaumont’s dismissal revealed a low bounce, a demonstration of the slow pitch that made run-gathering a careworn business. Lauren Winfield-Hill concentrated hard to compile a useful 36, but then swung to deep mid-wicket and was held. The main batting line-up promised big scores, but both Heather Knight and Nat Sciver got out in the 40s (Sciver to a quite outstanding tumbling catch in the deep by Smriti Mandhana) to leave Sophia Dunkley with another rebuilding job. She was eighth out for 28, but nobody could stay with her long enough to help post a challenging total. Deepti Sharma bowled some demanding overs to finish with 3-47, dismissing Sciver, Jones and Dunkley.
English batters had pushed plenty of singles past mid-on, but fours proved elusive. Right at the end Kate Cross slogged to good effect to add a four and a six, but a total of 219 was less than secure.
She was needed again to make the initial breakthrough, forcing Shafali Verma into a false shot. For the second time running neither Katherine Brunt nor Anya Shrubsole took a wicket.
At last Sarah Glenn could feel she was contributing positively; she had Mandhana lbw to a ball that turned in hard on her. Sarah Ecclestone found Jemimah Rodrigues chopping on, but the inevitable Raj took root. In the course of her innings she overtook Charlotte Edwards’ all-time all-format run-scoring record, but was she moving fast enough?
England tried hard to keep the scoreboard in slo-mo. Raj seemed more intent on checking the placement of every fielder between every delivery – a tiny flick of the fingers as she rotated six times an over – than working out how to increase the scoring-rate. Harmanpreet Kaur, Sharma and Sneh Rana all stayed with her in the middle overs as the hosts tried to squeeze the life out of the innings.
Knight brought herself on and took the valuable wicket of Kaur – indeed England’s three spinners took four of the six wickets to fall; does that prove anything? Yes, they all went for under four runs per over!
Rana did a fine job speeding things up as Raj reserved her big blast for the very end.
An English brains trust gave the final over to Brunt, not Cross who had been the pick of the quick bowlers again. It was sad to see England’s great fast bowler unable to recreate the palmy days of the past (7.3=0-45-0). Raj (75*) and Jhulan Goswami picked off the six runs needed to clinch the match.
Now come three T20s. Will Lisa Keightley be minded to make any alterations to her line-up? The omens are not good for the outsiders. But the options among the quicks have been unpromising. Brunt and Shrubsole have taken four wickets between them in three games. Cross has borne the brunt.
Scores: England 219; India 220-6
Points: England 6; India 4
Umpires: Nigel Llong and Russell Warren
Afterthought
Alyssa Healy sent in an amusing post to the Sky comm box, asking for a translator. Dani Hazell from Durham was the target of the mischievous demand. Healy didn’t query the presence of two Australian accents in the box, but not one Indian.
