In the rain-affected first T20I, England all-rounder Nat Sciver hammered a record-equalling half-century before the bowlers put the struggling Indian batters under strain to ensure an 18-run triumph for the hosts by the DLS method. England reached 177 for seven in 20 overs because of Sciver\u2019s 27-ball 55, which included eight fours and a shot over the fence, and wicketkeeper Amy Jones 43 off 27 balls. Sciver\u2019s fifty was the joint-fastest in the format for England.<\/p>\n
In reply, despite vice-captain Smriti Mandhana\u2019s quickfire 29 off 17 balls, India couldn\u2019t keep up with the needed run rate, falling to 54 for three in 8.4 overs, 18 runs behind England under the DLS method. After winning the ODI series, England now leads the three-match T20I series 1-0 and 8-4 in the multi-format points system.<\/span><\/p>\n India got off to the worst possible start in their chase for 178 when bowler Katherine Brunt bamboozled the big-hitting Shafali Verma for a duck, leaving India nought for one. After the early setback, Mandhana and Harleen Deol (17 not out) brought the visitors back on track.<\/p>\n With rain on the horizon, the duo quickly stitched a 44-run combination, with Mandhana hitting six boundaries, including consecutive fours against Brunt in the third over of the chase, as Harleen played the supporting role. Sciver, on the other hand, struck quickly, dismissing the dangerous Mandhana in the sixth over.<\/p>\n Harmanpreet Kaur\u2019s (1) long dry spell continued in the next over, as the senior batsman became all-rounder Sarah Glenn\u2019s first victim. The Indians paid a high price for losing the skipper\u2019s wicket in quick succession, ensuring that they were considerably behind in the DLS technique.\u00a0Earlier, veteran pacer Shikha Pandey (3\/22) got three wickets, while spinners Poonam Yadav (1\/32) and Radha Yadav (1\/33) each claimed one wicket.<\/span><\/p>\n Tammy Beaumont and Danni Wyatt got England off to a good start with 48 runs in the powerplay. In the eighth over, Radha broke the opening stand when wicketkeeper Richa Ghosh, who was playing her first match of the series, caught Wyatt trying a reverse sweep. The Indians went for the review, which showed a spike on the UltraEdge.<\/p>\n Following the departure of skipper Heather Knight, Sciver and Jones kept the momentum rolling. The duo put together a 78-run outing. In the penultimate over, Harmanpreet and Harleen made outstanding catches as Shikha struck thrice dismissing Sciver, Jones, and Sophia Dunkley.<\/p>\n Under the guidance of coach Abhay Sharma, Harmanpreet claimed the team\u2019s fielding has improved significantly, but the bowling might have been better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" England rode on Sciver\u2019s 27-ball 55 and Amy Jones 43 off 27 balls to reach 177 for seven in 20 overs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":25623,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[963,1641,1917,389,935,1398],"class_list":["post-2537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cricket","tag-harmanpreet-kaur","tag-indian-women-cricket","tag-smriti-madhana","tag-sports","tag-t20i","tag-womens-cricket"],"reading_time":"3 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}