Bristol: A confident India will aim to capitalise on opener Smriti Mandhana’s sublime form and hope for skipper Harmanpreet Kaur’s availability to achieve another big win when the second Women’s T20I against England is played here on Tuesday.
Mandhana’s maiden T20I century in the opening game at Nottingham guided India to a massive 97-run win, and the likely presence of skipper Harmanpreet — who was rested for the first game as a precautionary measure following a head injury sustained during a warm-up match — for the second game would only add to the hosts’ worries.
Mandhana’s stroke-filled century would have rung alarm bells in the English camp as it tries to find answers to the dramatic batting collapse it suffered while chasing a steep 210-run total.
It was a day when Mandhana’s entertaining innings brought the hosts under tremendous pressure, which was later exploited by the Indian bowlers.
India struck twice early and the slow bowler, especially left-arm spinner Shree Charani who grabbed four wickets in her maiden T20I, complete the demolition job.
Mandhana, who led the T20I run-scoring charts last year, seemed to have picked up from where she had left off, smashing all the English bowlers with impunity.
Though the left-handed batter said after the match that the T20I format wasn’t her forte, it was a statement the cricket experts would take with a pinch of salt.
The India vice-captain’s power-hitting was on full display as she collected most of her boundaries on the off-side, while her three maximums came on the on-side.
The long camp in Bengaluru followed by their early arrival in England and a couple of tour matches seem to have helped the Indian players get into the rhythm of the shortest format as they showed no signs of rustiness in Nottingham.
India looked like a well-knit unit despite missing their premier seamers, Renuka Singh Thakur and Pooja Vastrakar, who are injured.
Harleen Deol at No. 3 looked the right call as she forged a 94-run stand for the second wicket with Mandhana to set up the platform for a big total.
While the bilateral white-ball series may not have immediate implications, it will certainly give the young Indian players the look and feel of the things to come when the T20 World Cup is held next year in England.
And, the 20-year-old debutant Shree Charani did really well in her maiden outing, delivering a dream spell of 3.5-0-12-4 to set up India’s win by displaying a lot of discipline and focus to strangle the England batters.
England skipper Nat Sciver-Brunt (66) waged a lone battle even as Indian spinners enjoyed a cakewalk, with Deepti Sharma and Radha Yadav too chipping in with a couple of wickets each.
Squads:
India: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Yastika Bhatia (wk), Harleen Deol, Richa Ghosh (wk), Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Amanjot Kaur, Sneh Rana, Sayali Satghare, Deepti Sharma, Kranti Goud, Arundhati Reddy, Shree Charani, Radha Yadav.
England: Natalie Sciver-Brunt (c), Tammy Beaumont (wk), Sophia Dunkley, Amy Jones (wk), Danni Wyatt-Hodge, Alice Capsey, Charlie Dean, Paige Scholfield, Em Arlott, Lauren Bell, Sophie Ecclestone, Lauren Filer, Linsey Smith, Issy Wong.
Match starts at 11:00pm IST.
