The First half an afternoon of a t20 double header, England Women, already 1-0 up in their two match series, taking on India Women at Chelmsford.
India won the toss and batted, and were soon in a bit of trouble as Amita Sharma played and missed 3 of the first 5 balls from Katherine Brunt, before edging the sixth behind to Sarah Taylor for a duck. Poonam Raut and captain Mithali Raj then started a recovery, finding boundaries from Brunt and off spinners Danni Wyatt and Laura Marsh to take the score to 32-1 after the six over powerplay. Then a collapse ensued as Raj got in a tangle against Wyatt to thin edge to Taylor for an 18 ball 21. Then next over Harmanpreet Kaur played Holly Colvin into the covers and rejected the single with Raut halfway down, the throw from Susie Rowe was wide of the stumps, but Colvin managed to complete the run out whilst lying on the ground. This left India 38-3 and in danger of folding a low score.
Kaur and Mona Meshram scored fairly steadily though the middle overs, reaching 71-3 after 14 overs, with solid fielding from England keeping them down to mostly singles. Marsh, Colvin and Arran Brindle couldn't find the breakthrough and India looked to be stepping up the pace when Kaur got inside the line and swept Jenny Gunn high into the stands at square leg as nine came from the 15th over. Another big hit from Kaur off Colvin looked to be heading for six over midwicket, but Lydia Greenway dived, caught the ball, then threw it back onto the field before hitting the boundary, a fantastic bit of fielding that turned six into two and showed how well England were saving runs in the field. A wide from Brindle brought up the 50 partnership in the 17th over, but Meshram fell two balls for later for 17, skying high to Greenway at deep midwicket who took a good high catch, 89-4. Sulakshana Naik carted her first ball high for four, but was then run out for 8, failing to beat the throw from Charlotte Edwards to Taylor, 99-5 with two overs left.
Brunt then bowled an excellent final over, with Kaur trying to flick a yorker over fine leg from outside off, missing, and being bowled for 34 from 38. only three more came from the over as Jhulan Goswami skied to Brindle and mid off for 2, Brunt finishing with 3-18 including a wicket maiden. Nagaranjan Niranjana hit four from Brindle, but the mad dash for runs brought three run outs to end the innings. Firstly Niranjana (8) hit to cover and was beaten by Marsh's throw to Taylor going for a 2nd run. Then Ekta Bisht (3) went after a good diving stop on the point boundary from Rowe was relayed by Wyatt to Taylor to beat out the attempted third run. Then Gouher Sultana's slap to long off was well fielded by Colvin to Brindle to run out Archana Das for 2, India finishing 114 all out.
England's reply began strongly as Edwards and Marsh looked to attack the bowling, but Edwards was almost out when Niranjana's strong appeal for caught behind was turned down, Edwards replied by smahing the next ball for four but was LBW next ball for 15 from 14, Niranjana leaping about wildly again in celebration this time. This brought in Taylor who, after hitting 60 in the first game, wanted more today, but had to wait before she could cut loose. England were 31-1 after the powerplay, fairly even with India and India would have felt they had a chance when Marsh (5) was run out by Bisht, who managed to deflect the return from Taylor onto the stumps, 32-2.
This brought in the other in form batter Greenway, who was promptly dropped by keeper Naik on 0, as she and Taylor started to take the game away from India as quick running between the wickets and a steady supply of boundaries sped the chase along. 58 came from the first 10 overs, and more came along quickly as Sultana's first two balls were powerfully smashed back over her head for four by Taylor. Another four from Greenway took the partnership past 50 from 41 balls in the 14th over. Taylor then reached her 2nd fifty of the series from 39 balls as the end came quickly. With the score on 113-2, Taylor flicked Das's medium pace high over midwicket for four to pull off an 8 wicket win with 17 balls to spare, Greenway 30 not out from 31 and Taylor 67 from 48 with nine fours, and she picked up the player of the match and series awards as England took the series 2-0.
Next up this evening was Essex taking on Sussex.
