Wyatt and Brunt seal the series for England

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Maithilee Shetty
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Harmanpreet-less India take on Taylor-powered England in series opener

Danielle Wyatt of England batting with Taniya Bhatia of India keeping. ©ICC

Danni Wyatt’s unbeaten 64 has sealed the series for the visitors as India lose their second T20I series of 2019. England registered a 5 wicket victory at the Barsapara Cricket Ground, Guwahati.

India replaced Veda Krishnamurthy with Bharti Fulmali and Arundhati Reddy with Ekta Bisht. England team also saw some changes, Amy Jones came back in the squad for Sophia Dunkley and Laura Marsh for Alex Hartley.

Asked to bat, India lost Smriti Mandhana within the batting powerplay after hitting Shrubsole for two sixes. The captain got a leading edge and was caught behind by Amy Jones off Katherine Brunt. The Indian batting tumbled soon after as Brunt struck again to dismiss Jemimah Rodrigues at mere 2 runs. Linsey Smith picked up Harleen Deol in the subsequent over to a poor shot to mid-wicket which left India 34 for 3 wickets in 6 overs.

Chasing a total of 111, England got off to a decent start after which Radha Yadav sent back Tammy Beaumont, who happened to be the match winner in the 1st T20I of the series. Poonam Yadav struck in her first over to dismiss Jones. Sciver lost her wicket in the next over to Ekta Bisht as England were 50 runs for 3 wickets in 9 overs.

Heather Knight was trapped a leg before by Bisht but Wyatt played a clinical knock to anchor her team’s chase. She scored an unbeaten 64 off 55 balls which drifted the match away from India. Lauren Winfield played a supporting knock of 29 runs to Wyatt. Winfield hit consecutive boundaries to Radha which saw a considerable dip in run rate.

Harleen Deol bowled her first over in international cricket and went for 6 runs without a wicket. Deepti Sharma picked up Winfield’s wicket but England was already in the winning position with 7 runs required of 12 balls. Radha Yadav gave away 5 runs in the 19th over. Wyatt dispatched Sharma’s wide delivery to hit the winning boundary and register a 5 wicket win for her side with 5 balls to spare.

In the first innings, after Deol's dismissal Deepti Sharma and Mithali Raj put up a 35 run stand but Sharma lost her wicket in a run-out. The debutant Bharti Fulmali opened her international career with a boundary which was India's first after 3 overs. She managed to score an 18 run cameo on looking the wickets of Mithali who concluded the innings as the leading run-getter for her side at 20 runs, Shikha Pandey for 3 runs and Taniya Bhatia for 1.

Fulmali was dismissed by Brunt to register her third wicket in the last over of the match. Brunt registered herself as the oldest English bowler to take 3-fer in a women's T20I. At the end of India’s 20 overs, India scored 111 runs for the loss of 8 wickets.

“I think it was a very good wicket to bat on. Also, the way our bowlers bowled with 15 runs extra it could have been a different result,” said Smriti Mandhana, the captain during the post-match presentation.

“It was difficult out there but I am happy we got the series under our belt,” said Wyatt, who was was named the player of the match.
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