England Women v India Women 2nd T20I Hove on Sunday 11th July
As heard on radio Sports Xtra, commentators (Alex Hartley, Isabelle Westbury and Henry Moeran) had premature expectations for an early England multi-format series win.
*Losing by eight runs, only three of England’s players made double-figures (Tammy Beaumont, Heather Knight and Amy Jones) with four ‘run outs.’
*The series was kept alive by India Women snatching two points, with ‘all to play for’ during the final match of the multi-format series
*Batting first, India were 49 without loss after six overs of powerplay, (compared to England’s reply: 52-2) *Mady Villiers removed both India’s openers went in quick succession after ten overs. Firstly catching Smriti Mandhana (20 runs of 16 balls) off Freya Davies’ pace. Secondly as spin bowler, when India’s top scorer Shafali Verma (48 off 38) was caught by Natalie Sciver
*England’s reply got off to a promising start with a faster run rate (8.18) at the 11th over (92 vs 77) – despite losing Danni Wyatt and Natalie Sciver *Thereafter, commentators expressed doubts about whether India’s bowlers were capable of slowing down the run-rate, as England seemed in a commanding position
*Two Deepti Sharma dismissals shook-up the game during the 13th over. Firstly, Tammy Beaumont (59 off 50) went ‘leg-before.’ Next ball, Heather Knight (30 off 28) was dismissed unusually, when a ball that struck Deepti, went on to cause a ‘run out’
*Thereafter, commentator Henry Moeran said the game ‘sat on a knife edge.’
*Fellow commentator Alex Hartley was astonished that India’s skipper Harmanpreet Kaur placed field settings ‘never seen before’ (in Hartley’s 15 years playing) – Amy Jones (11 off 12) – was immediately caught by Sneh Rana, fielding at ‘forward square leg,’ standing forward of another fielder standing at ‘square leg’
*At the 100-ball benchmark (16.4 ov) England were 9 runs ahead with two more wickets down (India were 116-3 compared to England 125-5.) *Thereafter, England’s runs dried-up as tail-enders’ wickets tumbled. *Faced by Sneh Rana’s ‘death’ over, no big hits were attempted to clear the 14-run deficit, with pairs of ‘short leg’ and ‘fine leg’ fielders lying in wait
Result: India Women 148 beat England 140 by 8 runs, levelling the T20I series 1-1
India 148 (4 wickets, 20 overs@7.4 runs per over) Shafali Verma 48, Harmanpreet Kaur 31, Deepti Sharma 24, Smriti Mandhana 29; Mady Villiers 1/9, Natalie Sciver 1/20, Freya Davies 1/31, Sarah Glenn 1/33; Fow 1-70, 2-72, 3-112, 4-125
England 140 (8 wickets 20 overs@7rpo), Tammy Beaumont 59, Heather Knight 30; India bowling: Poonam Yadav 2/17, Deepti Sharma 1/18, Arundhati Reddy 1/30; Fow 1-13, 2-31, 3-106. 4-106, 5-120, 6-125, 7-134, 8-137
Scorecard & videos at https://www.icc-cricket.com/match/31729#teams
Multi-format points tally England: 8pts India 6pts. Final match: Chelmsford on July 14 at 18:30h on BBC2 TV
