2nd T20I: India women beat England women by 8 runs to keep series alive

The India women’s cricket team secured a thrilling victory by a margin of eight runs over the English women’s cricket team on Sunday to level up the three-match T20I series 1-1. The third and final game of the series will be the decider as the Indian team looks to make history with an impressive overseas series victory. The visitors had posted a total of 148 in their 20 overs. Young talent Shafali Verma played a brilliant knock scoring 48 runs off 38 deliveries, which included five consecutive boundaries.

Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur also delivered an impressive showing as she made 31 runs off 25 deliveries. In reply, England batter Tamsin Beaumont scored the most runs as she made an impressive 59 runs off 50 deliveries. This is India women’s first T20I win against England in England since August 2006. In other words, the last time the Indian women’s team won an away T20I in England, the men’s team was yet to play a match in this format.

Shafali Verma makes her presence felt

Smriti Mandhana came out to open the innings for India alongside Verma. Mandhana and Verma gave the side a strong start, as the former scored 20 runs in 16 deliveries. Shafali almost reached her half-century before being sent back to the pavilion after she made 48 runs. Deepti Sharma stayed unbeaten until the end with a sluggish 24 runs off 27 deliveries. The English bowlers did a fine job of restricting the Indians to under 150 runs. Freya Davies, Sarah Glenn, Mady Villiers, and Nat Sciver picked one wicket each. Richa Ghosh was run out for eight runs.

When the England side came out to bat, they looked in control and completely set to win the match. It seemed like only a matter of time since opener Beaumont looked in fine form. She managed to register a half-century, scoring 59 runs off 50 deliveries. Danni Wyatt and Sciver were dismissed cheaply for 3 and 1 runs respectively. Skipper Heather Knight looked to control the ship a bit as she made 30 runs off 28 deliveries.

Fine comeback by the Indian team

England however fell like a pack of cards to a series of unfortunate and rather immature runouts. Sciver, Knight, Sophia Dunkley, and Villiers departed to poor runout decisions. It was a rather disappointing loss for the hosts as they looked to be all set to win the match, especially during the partnership of Knight and Beaumont.

The Indian bowlers did an exceedingly good job of restricting England to a total of 140, eight runs short of India’s total. Deepti Sharma and Arundhati Reddy picked one wicket each. Poonam Yadav proved to be the pick of the bowlers as she bagged two wickets and conceded only 17 runs in her four overs.