India women faced a loss in the 1st T20I against England women at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai by 38 runs. Harmanpreet Kaur and co. lost the plot while chasing the innings and are 0-1 down in this series.
Batting first, the Three Lionesses scored 197 runs on the board for the loss of 6 wickets. It was a competitive score at the Wankhede Stadium and needed quite some chasing from the hosts.
Eventually, India women failed to capitalise on their starts and fell short. India’s top players in the form of Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues failed to live up to the billing and ended up falling short.
In this article, we take a look at the top 3 talking points of the 1st IND-W vs ENG-W T20I at the Wankhede Stadium:
1. A stunning 138-run partnership in the 1st innings
Despite losing 2 wickets on the bounce at the start of the innings, England women kept their calm and had a solid partnership between Danni Wyatt and Nat Sciver-Brunt. The duo put up 138 runs on the board and it was pure frustration for the Indian bowlers.
While Wyatt scored 75 runs in just 47 deliveries, Brunt amassed 77 runs in 53 balls. This partnership set the rhytm and tone for the England innings and they finished on a high.
2. Renuka Singh was the pick of the bowlers for India
While most of the Indian bowlers had a bad day in the office, Renuka Singh had a good outing with the white-cherry. She bagged 3 wickets and her wickets included Sophia Dunkley, Alice Capsey and Nat Sciver-Brunt.
Renuka Singh had a good economy rate of 6.75 and she delivered the goods with perfection with the white-cherry.
3. Shafali Verma waged a lone battle at the top
While most of the India batters failed to live up to the expectations, swashbuckling opener Shafali Verma played a mature knock of 52 runs in 42 balls. She not only struck a few good boundaries but also held the fort from one end.
She was eventually dismissed by Sophia Ecclestone and that was the end of her fabulous knock under pressure in Mumbai. The other 2 decent performers for India with the willow were skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and Richa Ghosh, who scored 26 and 21 runs respectively.