New Delhi: Nat Sciver-Brunt played an attacking and mature knock of 50 off 42 to help England out of a tough situation where their top order collapsed. Renuka Thakur used the conditions to get a bit of seam movement with the new ball and it was enough for her to destroy England’s top order as she struck thrice in her first three overs. She picked up her maiden five-wicket haul but Nat’s fifty and Amy Jones’ 40 off 27 were enough to help England cross 150.
Renuka bowled three overs upfront and picked up three wickets and came in to bowl the last over and dismissed Amy Jones and Katherine Sciver-Brunt. She started by dismissing Dani Wyatt as Richa Ghosh took a brilliant catch behind the stumps. Swinging deliveries helped her get Alice Capsey and Sophia Dunkley bowled. Two consecutive in the last over ended her four overs with 15/5.
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Captain Heather Knight and Nat Sciver showed their experience and started rebuilding the inning after 29/3. They attacked loose deliveries and found boundaries regularly to keep the run rate ticking. The 51-run stand was broken as Knight handed a catch to Shafali Verma off a full toss by Shikha Pandey. This was Pandey’s first international wicket after October 2021.
Nat Sciver did her job and was dismissed by Deepti Sharma as Smriti Mandhana grabbed a fine catch diving forward. Jones’ inning gave England a good finish and a total that could be defended looking at their bowling attack.
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Pacers Renuka and Shikha tried to contain England while Radha Yadav bowled tight, rest everyone looked out of colour and went for huge runs. Deepti Sharma’s 19th over going for 17 runs, where Jones hit two maximums turned things completely in England’s favour before Renuka could strike again.
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India now needs an attacking start from Shafali while someone has to stand and anchor the chase. Women in blue will look out for Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues to aid the tricky chase.
