Courtesy: BCCI
On Saturday, June 28, the Indian women’s cricket team registered a comprehensive win by 97 runs over England in the first T20I of the five-match series at Trent Bridge in Nottingham. The first Women’s T20 International (WT20I) belonged to Team India after captain Smriti Mandhana notched up her first hundred in the format, to help them post 210/5 total on the board before bundling out England for just 113 runs in 14.3 overs with Shree Charani taking four wickets.
For the unversed, after winning the toss, England captain Nat Sciver-Brunt decided to bowl first on a placid batting pitch, and her decision allowed India to take the early ascendancy in the contest. Smriti Mandhana shared a 77-run stand for the first wicket in 8.3 overs with Shafali Verma despite the latter struggling her way to 20 off 22 with three fours before Em Arlott took her wicket.
It led to an exceptional stand of 97 runs for the second wicket between Smriti Mandhana and Harleen Deol in just 7.3 overs with both the batters taking down the England bowlers. Mandhana went past three-figure score for the first-time in her T20I career in 51 balls after hitting a four on the bowling of Lauren Bell before Harleen Deol lost her wicket to the same bowler for 43 runs in 23 balls with seven fours.
While Bell took a couple more wickets of Indian middle order batters, Smriti Mandhana batted till the last over for India, scoring 112 in 62 with 15 fours and three sixes, to help the team get past 200-run total before losing her wicket to Sophie Ecclestone. In the pursuit of the 211-run target, England had a horrible start as they lost their openers Sophia Dunkley and Danni Wyatt-Hodge within the first seven balls of their innings.
Nat Sciver-Brunt shared a 49-run stand for the third wicket with Tammy Beaumont before the Indian bowlers ran riot with the ball once again, not allowing England to stitch any partnerships. While Sciver-Brunt kept her end going for a long time, scoring 66 off 42 with 10 fours, the rest of the batters of England at the other end fell like nine pins before they were bowled out cheaply without facing 33 balls in their innings.
Shree Charani registered figures of 4/12 in 3.5 overs, while the experience of Deepti Sharma and Radha Yadav shone through as they picked up a couple of key wickets each as well.
