The Indian eves lost the T20I series but they have started the ODI leg on a bright note as they won the first ODI of the three-match series against England by seven wickets on Sunday.
Harmanpreet Kaur won the toss, which has been a pretty rare instance on this tour, and asked England to bat in conditions that looked excellent for swing and seam. The Indian bowlers didn’t let Kaur regret her decision as they did some fine bowling and had the England batters on their toes right from the start.
Meghna Singh drew first blood as she dismissed Emma Lamb in the eighth over of the innings. Jhulan Goswami joined the party after that as she sent the experienced Tammy Beaumont back to the pavilion in the very next over.
England kept losing wickets at regular intervals after that and were 178/7 at one point. But some good knock down the order by Alice Davidson Richards (50*), Danielle Wyatt (43), Sophie Ecclestone (31) and Charlotte Dean (24*) helped England reach a competitive total of 227/7.
However, as it has been seen on multiple occasions on this tour, the side batting second has enjoyed supreme advantage as the conditions have become superior for batting in the second innings. The same thing happened for India here. Although they lost the wicket of Shafali Verma quite early, Smriti Mandhana rose to the occasion once again. She kept timing the balk beautifully and kept cruising towards her century. But her innings was cut short on 91 by Kate Cross.
Yastika Bhatia also impressed with a 47-ball 50 and Harmanpreet Kaur also remained unbeaten on 74 off 94 deliveries to guide India safely to the target with seven wickets and 32 deliveries to spare. India thus went 1-0 up in the series and Mandhana was adjudged the Player of the Match for her superb knock once again.
Brief Scores
India 232/3 in 44.3 overs (Mandhana 91, Kaur 74*; Cross 2/43) beat England 227/7 in 50 overs (Davidson Richards 50*, Wyatt 43; Sharma 2/33) by seven wickets.
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