Women’s World Cup, England v India Review: Indian Women Start Their Campaign On A Winning Note

Apr 6, 2019 at 2:11 PM

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Women’s World Cup, England v India Review: Indian Women Start Their Campaign On A Winning Note

Indian Women’s team restricted England to just 246 runs to snap a comfortable win by 36 runs and start their Women’s World Cup journey in a great fashion.

After being asked to bat first, Indian top order produced dominating performances to propel India to a laudable total of 281/3 in 50 overs. The highly appreciable batting show was backed by a decent display of bowling which saw England get strangled during the chase.

The overcast conditions did not really help English bowler as Heather Knight predicted during the toss time.  Opener Smirti Mandana, the 20-year-old prodigy, along with Punam Raut gave a dominating start to India. The two added 144 runs for the first wicket to make things easier for the others to come.

Smriti was the most appealing out of the two openers and grabbed all the limelight in the first half of the innings with her attacking approach. Punam, on the other hand, had a nervous kind of start but soon settled in. The duo batted for 26.2 overall before Mandana was dismissed 10 runs short of her century. Her knock of 90 which came off just 72 deliveries at a strike rate of 125. Mandana was caught in the mid-wicket region off Knight’s bowling.

This brought skipper Mithali Raj along with well settled and more confident Punam.

The pair played a counter attacking brand of cricket and ensure smooth run flow. Raut, who had just received completed her fifty at the time Mandana departed, combined with Mithali to form another huge stand, adding 122 runs for the 2nd wicket.

Unfortunately, the Indian side was denied a centurion for the second time after Punam lost her wicket to Danielle Hazel in the 43rd over at the score of 86 runs. Mithali Raj (71 from 73 balls), however, stood strong at the other end and registered a record breaking 7th consecutive fifty to ensure there were no hiccups in the final overs.

England were unable to stitch long partnerships like India did and paid the cost for the failure. After a rather ordinary start, where they lost both the openers – Tammy Beaumont and Sarah Taylor – for negligible contributions, skipper Heather Knight and Natalie Sciver tried to some damage control. However, the latter was unable to keep her wicket safe and became a victim off-spinner Deepti Sharma’s sharp off break.

Knight, fortunately, got the partner she needed in the form of Fran Wilson. Together the pair added 67 for the 4th wicket to keep the chase alive. But, the turning point of the match arrived when Harmanpreet Kaur effected a run-out to send Knight packing.

This triggered a downfall as the middle order collapsed in panic. There were three more run outs that of Katherine Brunt, Jenny Gunn and England’s last hope Wilson.

She was the lone fighter batting at 81 off 75 deliveries and keeping the hopes alive as England crawled closer to the accomplishing their highest chase in the ODI format. However, once her wicket fell, wrapping up the tail enders was as easy as it could get and the Indian side pocketed an easy win.

Brief Scores:

India: 281/3 in 50 overs (Smriti Mandana 90; Heather Knight 2/41)

England: 246 all out in 47.3 overs (Fran Wilson 81; Deepti Sharma 3/47)

***

At the County Ground in Briston, New Zealand thrashed Sri Lanka by 9 wickets. It was a dominating show which was orchestrated by seamer Holly Huddleston’s 5/35 which restrcited Sri Lanka for just 188/9 in 50 overs.  It was complete disaster from the Lanka batting unit who were at 141/1 at one stage before Holly made a mockery of their line up.

Chasing the modest target was not a huge task for themas Suzi Bates (106 from 109 balls) and Amy Satterwaite (78 from 103 balls) smoothly knocked off the required runs and gave rousing start to their World Cup campaign.

Brief Scores:

Sri Lanka: 188/9 (Chamari Attapatu 53; Holly Huddleston 5/35)

New Zealand: 189/1 (Suzi Bates 106; Chandima Gunaratne 1/20)

Man of the Match: Holly Huddleston

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