Beaumont, Smith shine as England take 1-0 lead against India

Maithilee Shetty

04 Mar 2019

New Update

Beaumont, Smith shine as England take 1-0 lead against India — Tammy Beaumont in action. ©ICC

Beaumont’s 62 powered England to 160 runs total which was supported by Smith and Brunt’s 2 wicket hauls to restrict India to 119 and win by 41 runs. England has taken a 1-0 lead in the series.

India won the toss and chose to bowl first. Indian squad included Harleen Deol who made her debut and for England, Jones missed out due to illness, so Beaumont replaced her as the wicketkeeper. Elwiss suffered a stress fracture of the lower back and has therefore been ruled out of the series.

Danni Wyatt and Tammy Beaumont opened the match for England against Shikha Pandey. Wyatt hit back to back boundaries to Deepti Sharma. At the end of the power play, England scored 45-0 after 6 overs which is their highest powerplay total since July. Radha Yadav was introduced in 6th over in search of wickets but proved to be expensive and went for 12 runs in her first over. Having Beaumont and Wyatt dominate the Indian spinners led to the shift in strategy which brought Shikha Pandey back into the attack.

Wyatt lost her wicket to Pandey in her last over as Smriti Mandhana caught a drifting catch to break the partnership of 89 which is England's 2nd highest T20I partnership against India in India. England lost Nat Sciver soon after at 4 to Radha Yadav. Beaumont held her ground to complete her half-century off 47 balls including eight fours which turned to be her first fifty against India. Heather Knight made a 40 run cameo to power her team surpass 150 run-mark. She hit 5 consecutive boundaries to Arundhati Reddy in the latter's last over to end her spell with 45 runs without any wicket.

Knight fell to Deepti Sharma after getting caught at the boundary. Beaumont’s clinical 62 run innings came to an end as Radha Yadav struck her in the final over of the match. This was her 2nd highest T20I score and the highest strike rate innings of her T20I career. England accumulated the score of 160 runs off 4 wickets which is England's highest 1st innings T20I total against India.

The Indian innings started with five wides by Nat Sciver. From the other end, Anya Shrubsole again gave away five wides also followed up with the boundary by Deol. In the subsequent over, Katherine Brunt picked up Deol after making a score of 8 runs. The fourth over saw the fourth bowling change of the match as Linsey Smith struck a big wicket of Mandhana as the captain walked back to the pavilion at 2. Jemimah Rodrigues lost her wicket on the consecutive delivery as Smith picked up India’s two best batters in the format in an over. Veda Krishnamurthy defended the hattrick bowl denying the young English woman a hattrick.

After a series of dots and singles, Mithali Raj lost her wicket to Kate Cross at 7 and Krishnamurthy too fell to a poor shot at 15 runs including 2 boundaries after which India was left bleeding at 46 for the loss of 5 wickets. Reddy and Sharma built up a 30 runs partnership before Brunt picked up Reddy at 18 runs.

Pandey and Sharma held their ground to built a partnership of 43 but the required runs were too high for the all-rounders to meet. India finished their 20 over for 119 to register a loss by 41 runs. Tammy Beaumont was the Player of the match.

Brief Score: England 160/4 (Tammy Beaumont 62, Radha Yadav 2/33) beat India 119/6 (Shikha Pandey 23, Brunt 2/21) by 41 runs

This win marked the fourth consecutive win for England against India in T20. England has taken 1-0 lead in the series. This is also the first time England have won batting 1st against India in Asia.

Mithali Raj Tammy Beaumont Veda Krishnamurthy Natalie Sciver Jemimah Rodrigues Deepti Sharma Danni Wyatt Harleen Deol Taniya Bhatia (wk) Heather Knight (c) England Tour of India, 2019 Smriti Mandhana (capt)