England women clinched a last-ball thriller to beat India women by five runs in the third T20I match between the two sides on Friday at the Oval.
With this victory, the host has opened its account in the series after consecutive losses in Nottingham and Bristol, and it now trails the Women in Blue 2-1.
Sophie Ecclestone’s economical bowling and Lauren Filer’s breakthroughs at crucial stages ensured that England didn’t concede an unassailable lead in the series.
Chasing 172, India had started well with openers Smriti Mandhana (56 off 49) and Shafali Verma (47 off 25) notching up yet another fifty-run partnership before Ecclestone denied the latter a half-century.
AS IT HAPPENED | ENG-W vs IND-W 3rd T20I Highlights
Coming in at No. 3 was Jemimah Rodrigues who had scored a fine fifty in the last match. The 24-year-old seemed to be batting in the same vein of form but Filer quickly removed both Smriti and Jemimah (20 off 15).
Dropped catches marred England’s defence but pacers Lauren Bell and Issy Wong used the slower one in their arsenal to near perfection to take the game to the last over. Six runs were needed off the last ball but India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur (23 off 17) couldn’t muscle it out of the park.
Earlier, England decided to bat against the Women in Blue for the first time after winning the toss for a third consecutive time in the series. The host was without Nat Sciver-Brunt, who was ruled out of the match due to a groin injury.
Charlotte Edwards’ charges began with intent as openers Sophia Dunkley (75 off 53) and Danni Wyatt-Hodge (66 off 42) posted a 137-run partnership for the first wicket.
It was broken only in the 16th over when Deepti Sharma caught Dunkley off her own bowling. The breakthrough triggered a catastrophic collapse as England lost eight wickets while scoring just 31 runs.
Despite Arundhati Reddy (3/32), Deepti (3/27), N. Sree Charani (2/43), and Radha Yadav (1/15) cleaning up the host’s middle order and tail, England in the end made sure that its record of never losing a match in the format after scoring over 170 remained intact.
