England misplaced six wickets for 31 runs within the house of 5.4 overs, together with three run outs
India 148 for 4 (Verma 48, Kaur 31) beat England 140 for 8 (Beaumont 59, Knight 30, Poonam 2-17, Sharma 1-18) by eight runs
A flurry of late wickets consigned England from a place of energy to a nail-biting eight-run defeat by the hands of India of their second T20I in Hove.
Each openers confirmed glorious intent and it was Mandhana who took a supporting position to Verma, the breathtakingly gifted teenager plundering eight fours and a six on her technique to 48 off 38 balls as Mandhana confronted 16 balls for her 20. The pair was wanting decidedly harmful earlier than Mady Villiers performed her half in dismissing each.
Verma’s fireworks
Katherine Brunt conceded 11 off the second over of the match with Mandhana and Verma every discovering the boundary by way of third man however worse was to return for England’s seam-bowling stalwart. In her subsequent over, Brunt leaked 21 runs, Verma carting her for 5 consecutive fours, punched by way of midwicket, hammered down the bottom and steered deftly by way of backward level earlier than nearly equivalent thrashings over mid-on.
Nat Sciver may have dismissed Verma two balls after this onslaught, had she held an especially powerful return catch, the velocity with which the ball was smashed again at her making the miss forgivable. There was arguably a extra real probability put down by Sophie Ecclestone off her personal bowling a short while later, Ecclestone getting herself in a very good place to take the catch earlier than the ball bobbled unfastened from her grasp. Because it turned out, Verma managed so as to add simply 9 runs extra.
Mady makes issues occur
Villiers was pivotal in eradicating Mandhana and Verma in fast succession, Freya Davies effecting the preliminary breakthrough when Mandhana tried to dispatch a fuller ball excessive, solely to sky it in the direction of cowl and Villiers, working spherical from mid-off did the remaining. No sooner had she pulled off that catch and offspinner Villiers was thrust into the assault, hanging instantly when she tempted Verma into one other massive shot to the leg facet and Sciver took the catch working to her proper from long-on. Villiers solely conceded one run from her first over to finish with 1 for 9 from two overs.
Left-arm spinner Ecclestone performed her half, too, having conceded 11 runs off her first over, she produced a maiden within the powerplay after which gave away simply 11 runs off her remaining two overs – the seventeenth and twentieth of the innings – to maintain a lid on India’s complete.
Full report back to observe…
Valkerie Baynes is a common editor at ESPNcricinfo
