England defeat India to seal appointment with Australia in ICC Womenâs World T20 Final
Team India suffered a disappointing eight-wicket defeat at the hands of England as the latter sealed a spot in the finals against Australia in the ongoing Womenâs World T20 in Antigua. English duo Natalie Sciver and Amy Jones hit half-centuries to chase down the target of 113 set by India.
Brief scores: India 112 all out in 19.3 overs (Smriti Mandhana 34, Jemimah Rodrigues 26; Heather Knight 3-9, Kristie Gordon 2-20) lost to England 116/2 in 17.1 overs (Amy Jones 53*, Natalie Sciver 52*; Radha Yadav 1-20) by eight wickets.
Team India enjoyed a positive run in the group stages as they remained unbeaten ahead of the semi-final against England in Antigua and in the semi-final, Harmanpreet Kaur won the toss and opted to bat first, leaving out Mithali Raj from the team.
India got off to a decent start as openers Taniya Bhatia and Smriti Mandhana looked in good touch at the top of the order. After losing the latter in the sixth over, youngster Jemimah Rodrigues took to the crease and played some good shots to steady the ship for India. The team looked poised to cross the 130-run mark midway through the innings as they were at 89/3 after 13. However, the batting line-up fell miserably from there onwards as the Indians managed to lose eight back-to-back wickets scoring just 23 runs in the process. Some good bowling from the English bowlers, especially skipper Heather Knight and Kristie Gordon, restricted India to a total of 112 after 20.
England never really looked in trouble, while India opted to pile pressure on their opponents with an all-spin attack but
