IND-W v ENG-W 2nd T20I: Smriti Mandhana smashes 79* off 53 as India levels series at 1-1

New Delhi: India came back strong after a nine-wicket loss in the first T20I. England elected to bat first, but things did not go right for them in the first inning. Sneh Rana with the ball and Smriti Mandhana with the bat led India to a solid victory that helped them to level the series 1-1.

England suffered a similar fate that India had in the last game, starting off with a low total and then getting outplayed in the chase. Indian bowlers used the conditions to their advantage and stopped England at 142/6, after this, it was a brilliant 79* off 53 deliveries by Mandhana that aided India’s victory.

Early wickets push England to backfoot

Heroes of England’s chase in the last game were dismissed early and the team stood at 16/3 in just three overs. Sophia Dunkley was stumped off Deepti Sharma’s delivery while Renuka Thakur was back at getting edged to dismiss Danni Wyatt. Alice Capsey played a brilliant shot which looked unstoppable, but not for Radha Yadav. Radha threw the ball to Harmanpreet and the Indian captain threw it to the keeper just in time to get Alice run out.

A small partnership between Bryony Smith and captain Amy Jones started to brew when Sneh Rana came in to dismiss both of them. Just after a dropped catch by Pooja Vastrakar on the previous ball, Radha took a stunner to get Smith out and Rana bowled Jones when she tried to play a reverse sweep. It was Maia Boucher’s 34 off 26 balls and Freya Kemp’s cracking 51* off 37 that helped England reach a fighting total. Kemp, with her maiden T20I fifty, became the youngest English woman to do so.

The Smriti Mandhana show

Shafali Verma and Mandhana started off well after they smashed 55 runs in the first six overs. It was on the last ball of the sixth over that Sophie Ecclestone caught and bowled Verma for 20(17). After a couple of overs, Dayalan Hemalatha was also dismissed for 9(10), but India stood at 77/2 by then. After that Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur were just dealing in boundaries and chased down the total in just 16.4 overs.

With tight bowling, brilliant field presence of Radha Yadav and power-hitting by Smriti, India won the second game. Smriti Mandhana was declared the Player of the Match.