India blown away by England in first T20

Chester-le-Street, September 11

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The Indian women’s cricket team failed to click with both the bat and ball to suffer a nine-wicket loss against England in the first T20I here.

Sent in to bat by England skipper Amy Jones, the Indian batters came a cropper as leg-spinner Sarah Glenn’s four-wicket haul restricted the visitors to 132/7. Glenn finished with excellent figures of 4/23.

All-rounder Deepti Sharma top-scored for the tourists with a 29-ball 24, with opener Smriti Mandhana scoring 23 and captain Harmanpreet Kaur getting 20 off 16 balls. The big-hitting Shafali Verma gave away her wicket after making 14 off 13 balls.

England chased down the target in just 13 overs, even as India endured a forgettable night on the field in wet conditions. England were off to a blistering start with openers Sophia Dunkley (61 off 44 balls) and Danielle Wyatt (24 off 16 balls) taking the hosts to 60 in only 6.2 overs.

Dunkely survived a caught-behind courtesy of a no-ball from Renuka Singh. Shafali then fluffed a straightforward catch at mid-off when the opener was on 15. Renuka was the bowler again. Dunkley went on to record her highest score in the format. She shared a stand of 74 runs with Alice Capsey.

We forcefully played in wet conditions: Harmanpreet

India captain Harmanpreet said the side “forcefully played” in wet conditions.

“We were not able to get the runs we were expecting. I just feel we forcefully played because conditions were not 100 percent fit to play,” Harmanpreet said.

India ended up losing a key member of the side when Radha Yadav’s diving effort resulted in a shoulder injury. The 23-year-old’s sudden departure from the field meant that India were short of a bowler. “I know the ground was too wet and there were so many chances to get injured and one of our players got injured also. She was our main bowler and that’s why we were lacking,” Harmanpreet added. — PTI

Brief scores: India: 132/7 (Deepti 29*; Glenn 4/23); England: 134/1 in 13 overs (Dunkley 61*, Capsey 32*)