- Indian women’s cricket team blanked 3-0 by England in three-match T20I series.
- 2018 World T20 runners-up England complete series sweep with 1-run win in third and final game at Guwahati.
- England: 119/6 (Tammy Beaumont 29, Anuja Patil 2/13); India: 118/6 (Smriti Mandhana 58, Kate Cross 2/18).
- England end limited overs tour of India on T20I high, after hosts won the ODIs 2-1.
The rut refuses to go for the Indian women’s cricket team in the shortest format of the game, as they fell to a seventh successive defeat in T20Is – allowing England to sweep the three-match series between the sides at Guwahati.
The margin was as tantalisingly close as possible – India lost by 1 run – but given that they faced a mere 120-run target, the downfall was more unpardonable than unfortunate.
Heads will be scratched all the more in the Indian dressing room because they sat at a luxurious 87/2 in 12.5 overs before the dismissal of captain Smriti Mandhana, whose 58 was comfortably the highest score of the match.
But the hosts contrived to fall short with just 33 required off the last seven overs, and seven wickets in hand – with veteran Mithali Raj once again being in the middle at the end.
Batting Listless, Mithali Helpless
India needed just three runs from the final over with Raj well set at the crease on 30 off 32 balls, but the ODI skipper was left stranded at the other end and didn't get an opportunity to face a single delivery in the final over from Kate Cross (2/18).
Bharati Fulmali (5 off 13) was guilty of wasting the opening three deliveries of the decisive over before handing Cross her first wicket, a straight-forward catch to Anya Shrubsole at mid-off while trying to clear the in-field.
It was an insensible display of batting from the Indian lower-order as new batswoman Anuja Patil too try to go for a big shot in the next delivery instead of giving the strike back to Raj, in the process getting brilliantly stumped by Amy Jones.
From three off six balls, the equation became three off one for India and Shikha Pandey could only steal a single even as Raj helplessly watched the drama unfold from the other end.
Skipper Mandhana had earlier set the tone of the chase with a quickfire 39-ball 58, an innings laced with eight fours and a six. But not for the first time in recent games, the left-handed opener’s efforts were to go in vain.
Bowling Comeback in Vain
With the series already in their pocket, England earlier posted a modest 119/6 from their 20 overs after electing to bat.
Tammy Beaumont (29) and Danielle Wyatt (24) got England off to a flying start, stitching 51 runs for the opening stand.
Besides the duo, wicket-keeper Amy Jones made a 21-ball 26.
The off-spin duo of Anuja Patil (2/13) and Harleen Deol (2/13) put the brakes in the middle-overs for India.
India lost the first T20 by 41 runs before suffering a five-wicket defeat in the second match to hand England the series. The hosts had earlier won the three-match ODI series 2-1.
(With inputs from PTI)
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