Clinical India take early lead

India put on a clinical show with both bat and ball to defeat England in Chelmsford and take an early lead in the T20I series. India overcame a poor start to post a commanding 188/7 on the board before restricting England to just 150/8 in the run chase to prevail easily by 38 runs.

Opting to bowl first, England made a dream start when Lauren Bell struck twice in the opening over. Off the very first delivery of the match, she removed stand-in skipper Smriti Mandhana and then on the final delivery, Shafali Verma miscued one to get caught. That was then followed up by a disastrous over by Issy Wong as she conceded five wides twice and Yastika Bhatia added to her woes by smashing three more boundaries, with the over costing England 27 runs. That over helped India regroup instantly as more boundaries followed in the Powerplay including a 15-run over from Sophie Ecclestone.

Eventually, India amassed 73/2 in the Powerplay largely thanks to that over from Wong. Yastika did slow down a touch post that assault as she took 14 deliveries to move from 40 to 50. At the other end, Jemimah continued to bat at a brisk pace, fetching boundaries at regular intervals. She smashed the debutant Tilly Corteen-Coleman for a six over mid off to bring up her half-century as India put themselves in a commanding position at 120/2 after 12 overs.

The century stand was finally broken in the 14th over when India lost both set batters in the space of three deliveries. From thereon, England fought back with a few more wickets to slow India down before a handy little cameo from Deepti Sharma helped them finish close to the 190-run mark. India then went on to nail the bowling Powerplay as well. Sophia Dunkley threw away a start and Capsey edged one behind to give Kranti Gaud her second wicket. Arundhati Reddy supported her well at the other end as England made only 43 in the Powerplay.

Amy Jones and Heather Knight made an effort to up the ante by targeting Nandni Sharma and the former continued to deal in boundaries against the spinners to eventually get to a 32-ball fifty. At the halfway mark, England needed a big push with 104 runs still needed for the win. However, Kranti and Arundhati bowled tight overs back-to-back to pile on the pressure which resulted in Shree Charani breaking the partnership.

The chase then wilted away completely once Nandni struck off successive deliveries including the key wicket of Jones. England completely lost steam at the death and added just 30 runs from their final five overs handing India a comfortable win.

Brief scores: India 188/7 in 20 overs (Jemimah Rodrigues 69, Yastika Bhatia 54; Lauren Bell 3-34) beat England 150/8 in 20 overs (Amy Jones 67; Nandni Sharma 3-34, Kranti Gaud 2-24) by 38 runs