Half-centuries from Yastika Bhatia and Jemima Rodrigues helped India post 188 for seven and overcome England by 38 runs in the first T20 international.
The seamer Nandani Sharma, who took a hat-trick in January’s WPL, could not quite repeat that feat here, but three wickets in the space of five balls was nevertheless an impressive outing for the 24-year-old. “We all felt emotional seeing her debut,” Bhatia said. “It’s exciting times for Indian cricket that whoever is coming into the XI is making a contribution.”
England were trounced by India last summer, so this series promises to be a good test of their progress over the past 12 months. But despite handing a T20I debut to the 18-year-old Tilly Corteen-Coleman, effectively giving them an extra spin option, somehow they still seemed to lack bowling depth.
Lauren Bell was as reliable as ever, taking two wickets in her first over en route to figures of three for 34. But one over in the powerplay from Issy Wong cost 27 runs and another from Dani Gibson at the death went for 17.
Bhatia, playing her first T20I for more than two years after anterior cruciate ligament surgery, took full advantage. “It was tough to go through rehab,” she said. “There were days when nothing was happening, no progress was physically seen. But I just kept on going, kept showing up.”
In reply, Amy Jones struck 67 off 48 balls from the unfamiliar No 3 position – her first T20I half-century in almost six years. England’s keeper has been under scrutiny after a couple of under-par performances with the gloves, including conceding 14 byes against New Zealand on Saturday. This innings will take off some of that heat.
The lack of support for Jones told. Sophia Dunkley smashed a huge six down the ground, but she was caught at mid-off swiping across the line. This was Heather Knight’s 310th international game, making her England’s most-capped player. But T20 cricket moves quickly and Knight’s 21 from 24 balls made the task harder as the run rate slowly climbed out of reach.
Both regular captains were absent: Harmanpreet Kaur was rested while Nat Sciver-Brunt is still making her way back from a calf injury. Sciver-Brunt told the BBC on Thursday that recovery was “going to plan”, but she may still be unable to bowl by the time England’s World Cup campaign begins on 12 June, which may further limit their options with the ball.
The stand-in captain, Charlie Dean, said: “Not having Nat in our batting lineup is a loss. We’re just trying to work out where the other girls fit into that.” She added that England needed to work on game management for the next match, at Bristol, on Saturday: “We gave ourselves too much to do at the end.”
The evening started with two contrasting overs. Bell, steaming in from the Graham Gooch End, had Smriti Mandhana caught at cover with the game’s first ball and Shafali Verma fell to an excellent diving catch by Alice Capsey at mid-on. Unfortunately Wong then undid all that good work from the Alastair Cook End, in an over that evoked troubling memories of her horror show here three years ago against Sri Lanka. Then she leaked 24 runs from two overs – this time she cost 27 in one, 11 of them in wides.
But after Dean ran out Bhatia to break a ferocious 126-run stand with Rodrigues, India’s innings took a tumble, Wong taking a spectacular low catch sprinting out to deep third to hand Corteen-Coleman a maiden T20I wicket, and then bowling Bharti Fulmali with a slower ball.
Perhaps the lesson here is that omitting Linsey Smith, leaving England with only one reliable powerplay bowler, is not a helpful strategy. They have two more matches before the World Cup to figure that one out.
