India Women needed to win against England Women to top the Group 2 in ICC T20 Women’s World Cup. Renuka Singh started the innings in a sensational way by taking three wickets inside the powerplay. After India Women won the toss and elected to field first, this spell has put England Women on the backfoot. From 29/3, England Women have recovered with the help of Nat Sciver-Brunt (50), Heather Knight (28) and Amy Jones (40). Nat Sciver-Brunt has put on 51 runs and 40 runs partnership with Heather Knight and Amy Jones against India Women.
Renuka Singh has come back in the last over to take Amy Jones and Katherine Sciver-Brunt wickets back to back. She ended with figures of 5/15 in 4 overs for India Women. Deepti Sharma (1/37) and Shikha Pandey (1/20) managed to take wickets. England Women have scored huge score of 151/7 in 20 overs. Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma opened for India Women briskly in the chase. But Shafali Verma (8) fell early.
Jemimah Rodrigues (13), Harmanpreet Kaur (4) failed to keep scoreboard ticking while even Smriti Mandhana had hard time rotating strike. Richa Ghosh and Smriti Mandhana have put on a partnership of 43 runs but the target seemed too heavy for India Women. Smriti Mandhana scored 52 runs off 41 balls and got out in 16th over. Richa Ghosh (47) had to hit 31 runs in the final over to win and it became too much for her. India Women managed to score 140/5 in 20 overs and lost the match by 11 runs.
Nat Sciver-Brunt has been announced as Player of the Match. England Women have won all 3 matches and they are set to top the Group 2 as their next match is against Pakistan Women. India Women need to win against Ireland Women to seal the semis spot. Pakistan Women and West Indies Women are fighting it out in their league match with Pakistan Women struggling to chase down the target of 117. India Women might have to play against mighty Australia Women in semi-finals this time around as they have played them in final, in 2021 T20 ICC Women’s World Cup and lost.
