England win by 11 runs, maintain clean sheet against India at T20 World Cup

Gqeberha [South Africa], February 18 (ANI): England registered an 11-run win against India keeping a clean sheet against the side at the T20 World Cups, in a Group B clash at St George’s Park on Saturday.

India succumbed to their sixth straight loss against the English side at the T20 World Cups despite Smriti Mandhana (52) and Richa Ghosh (47*) performing with the bat. Sarah Glenn was the pick of the bowlers scalping two wickets.

Chasing the target, India were off to a flying start with Smriti Mandhana taking Katherine Brunt to the cleaners in the third over. The opener smashed four boundaries in the pacer’s over to help India to a fiery start.

Shafali Verma too struck a boundary but fell to a short ball, failing to time the ball cleanly. The right-hander failed to fetch the ball from outside off-stump as Laura Bell bowled the bumper away from the batter, taking her wicket.

The wicket stemmed the flow of runs for the Indian side but the duo of Jemimah Rodrigues and Mandhana looked to consolidate without losing wickets. However, the dot ball pressure got to Jemimah who danced down the wicket to clear the boundary but found Katherine Brunt at the long-on boundary giving Sarah Glenn her first wicket.

India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur walked in at number four and looked to play attacking cricket from the word go with the required rate rising a bit. The skipper went after Sophie Ecclestone but failed to time the ball, managing an outside edge that went straight up.

Alice Capsey completed a juggling catch as they got rid of big-hitter Harmanpreet for just four runs bringing in Richa Ghosh at the crease.

The batter struck two consecutive boundaries in the 12th over to provide much-needed impetus to the chase. Mandhana too followed in her footsteps smashing Charlotte Dean for back-to-back boundaries in the next over. They shared a quickfire 43-run stand for the fourth wicket.

Mandhana perished soon after reaching fifty, bringing Deepti Sharma to the crease with India needing 47 runs off the final four overs.

India’s hopes rested on wicketkeeper-batsman Richa Ghosh who was at the crease with Deepti but the duo fell short despite the former hitting some lusty blows towards the end of the innings.

The Indian side kept too much for the end needing 31 runs in the last over as they could score only three runs from the penultimate over. Ghosh struck two consecutive fours and secured nine runs from the first ball with Brunt bowling a no-ball.

However, India could only manage 19 runs from the over as England restricted them to 140/5, winning the game by 11 runs.

The defeat was India’s sixth against the English side in the T20 World Cups.

Nat Sciver was adjudged the ‘Player of the Match’ for her superb half-century knock.

Brief Score: India 140/5 (Smriti Mandhana 52, Richa Ghosh 47*; Sarah Glenn 2-27) vs England 151/7 (Nat Sciver Brunt 50, Amy Jones 40; Renuka Singh 5-15)