India women won the second game vs England women to level the series at 1-1. It was a close match as India held their nerves in the final over to seal the game. Hence this makes the last contest between the two teams as a winner takes all clash. Moreover fans can expect a mouthwatering final T20 when India takes on England in Chelmsford on 14 July.
The second match was played at County ground in Hove. It was the hosts who won the toss and elected to field first. Both the Indian openers Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma gave their team a strong start. The duo added 70 runs for the first wicket in just 8.5 overs. Then, the left handed Mandhana was dismissed when Freya Davies got the better of her.
Just 2 balls later, India lost their other opener when Shafali Verma was sent back to the pavilion when she tried to hit a six over long on. However she was taken by Mady Villiers at the same position. The batter missed out on her well deserved fifty as she made 48 in 38 balls.
Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur showed his hitting prowess and whacked a couple of sixes enroute to a score of 31 in 25 deliveries. In the end India managed a score of 148-4 in 20 overs.
4 run outs in England’s innings!
Chasing a target of 149 runs, England lost wickets at regular intervals. The only decent partnership for the hosts were of 75 runs between Beaumont and Knight. As many as 4 English batter were run out due to some brilliant Indian fielding and miscommunication between home players. In the end, England could only score 140 runs for 8 wicket in 20 overs.
Amongst the four run outs, one truly stood out due to its freakish nature. It was the 5th ball of the 14th over. England had just lost a wicket on the previous ball as Beaumont was gone. The new batter Amy Jones punched her first delivery towards Deepti Sharma who tried to stop the ball. While doing that, the bowler fell as the batter at non strikers end Heather Knight was still out of the crease.
Just as Sharma was about to fall, the ball hit her and then bounced just about enough to crash into the stumps at non strikers end. Moreover Knight was still outside the crease when the bails fell. Hence an appeal for runout was given and the English skipper was run out in a dramatic fashion. She could not believe the incident as her face said it all.
Watch the video of the incident here:
