Eyeing to keep the three-match series alive, India will look for an improved show, especially in the bowling and fielding departments, when they take on a rampaging England in the second women’s T20I here on Saturday.
England extended their dominant run against India with a comprehensive 38-run win, which gave them a 1-0 lead in the three-match series. It was also England’s 21st victory in 28 T20Is against India and eighth in 10 matches in the country.
India failed to read the conditions adequately and also made glaring errors in the first game, which turned out to be a one-sided affair.
On a flat pitch not offering much to the bowlers, especially in the first innings, India used four different spinners—including the rookie Kanika Ahuja—and England took them apart, scoring 121 runs from a collective 12 overs for three wickets.
India handed debuts to two left-arm spinners, Shreyanka Patil (2/44) and Saika Ishaque (1/38), but both were wayward and expensive in their respective four-over spells.
Senior spinner Deepti Sharma (0/28) was not even trusted with completing her quota of overs.
Indian spinners bowled short as well as full tosses at times for England batters to dominate, whereas their fielders did not support them enough. Both Danni Wyatt and Nat Sciver-Brunt were given lifelines, which proved costly for the home team. The only bright spot in India’s bowling was seamer Renuka Singh Thakur, who had left England reeling at 2 for 2 in the opening over of the match.
But India not only allowed England to stage a comeback; the hosts, coming off a two-month break, also could not force their way back into the game at any stage.
While Indian tweakers cut a sorry figure, England’s spin pair of Sophie Ecclestone (4-0-15-3) and Sarah Glenn (1/25) exposed India’s batters with probing line and lengths that just did not allow them to free their arms.
