India vs England women | Danielle Wyatt century streamrolls India in tri-series

Indian women cricket team, after losing their first game of the tri-series against Australia, wanted to win their second game against England in Mumbai. English women team, after winning the toss, invited the hosts to bat first.

Mithali Raj and Smriti Mandhana opened India’s innings and the pair knew the need of a good start in the match. While Mandhana continued her prolific run of form in  yet another match, she got enough support from Raj as India raced to 53/0 during the powerplay overs. Mandhana was particularly impressive with the strokes she played and Raj just gave her the force that she needed. In the 9th over, Mandhana completed her fastest fifty by an Indian Women in T20Is and soon after helped India reach 96 runs in 10 overs.

After getting the start they needed, India wanted to make the full use of the opportunity and they kept on scoring runs. Raj also opened her arms, but Mandhana was dismissed by Natalie Sciver when she was on 76. While much was expected from Harmanpreet Kaur, she failed to get going and was out for 30. However, some middle-order fireworks by Pooja Vastrakar, who scored 22 runs off 10 balls, led India to a very good score of 198/4.

Chasing 199 was always going to be a difficult task for England, but Danielle Wyatt and Bryony Smith started the innings on a positive note and countered the bowling of Jhulan Goswami without any problem. However, before the partnership became a huge one, the latter was castled by the Indian pacer for 15 and was replaced by Beaumont. The incoming batsman gave very good support to the opener, who was firing on all cylinders, as the team reached 107/1 in 10 overs.

England needed 92 runs in the last 10 overs, and it needed some special effort from the opener. Wyatt understood her importance and played according to the situation in an effort to take the team much close. India’s defensive field set also didn’t help the cause as the destructive opener completed her century in only the 15th over of the innings. Although she was dismissed in the 16th over on a Deepti Sharma delivery, Natalie Sciver and skipper Heather Knight guided the team home in the 19th over of the innings.