On Wednesday night at Old Trafford, India’s women’s team stunned the hosts by winning the fourth T20 International match by six wickets, thereby clinching their first T20 International series victory in England.
Speaking about the victory, Indian player Radha Yadav said, “This time, there’s magic in this team and this environment. We want to move forward and achieve something big. We will dominate at all costs.”
Sports analysts believe that while England is ranked above India in the ICC T20 team rankings, the host team lagged behind in every department.
While batting, England managed to score only 126 runs for the loss of seven wickets, falling victim to poor shot selection and general confusion. India’s fielding was so impressive that England couldn’t hit a single boundary from the 11th to the 19th over.
India’s openers, Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana, scored 53 runs in the powerplay, displaying the controlled shot selection that was clearly missing in the England women’s team. This solid foundation allowed Harmanpreet Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues to intelligently bat and rotate strike to pave the way for victory.
After hitting the ball to short third, Charlie Dean panicked and attempted a single, but was sent back and was so far down the pitch that Richa Ghosh successfully ran her out.
Beaumont acknowledged that the England team was troubled by the absence of Nat Sciver-Brunt’s experience, who is not playing the rest of the T20 series due to a groin injury but is expected to be fit for the One Day Internationals.
Earlier, Deepti Sharma became only the second Indian woman to take 300 international wickets, when she dismissed Sophia Dunkley—who scored 22 runs—caught at backward point in the sixth over. That was England’s highest score of the innings, and it marked the beginning of their collapse.
Sophie Ecclestone, playing her 100th international match, gave away just 20 runs in her four overs, taking one wicket and catching Indian captain Kaur at mid-off. She broke the boundary drought in the final moments with a six over midwicket, remaining unbeaten on 16 off 10 balls. But it was too little, too late, as wickets kept falling regularly throughout the innings.
