Despite winning the 3-match T20I series, 2-1, hosts England failed to bring forward the same momentum to the 1st of the 3-match ODI series that was played at Hove as an improved and dominant performance from the Indian team proved just too good for the English and the win has India with a 1-0 lead in the series.
1st innings : England – 227/7 (50 overs)
England put in to bat first found life difficult in the middle with Meghna Singh and Jhulan Goswami charging in. The defensive start was just starting to click, but Meghna struck Emma Lamb on 12(26). In the very next over, Jhulan struck Tammy Beaumont on 7(21) and England lost both its openers for 21 on board in 8.4 overs. Sophia Dunkley and debutant, Alice Capsey, stitched a crucial 43-run stand that saw curtains with the wicket of Capsey on 19(28) and it only was a little longer that Dunkley stayed on to stitch a partnership with Danni Wyatt as she walked back on 29(52). India had another wicket in quick succession as Amy Jones departed on 3(10) which saw England 5 down for 94 on board in 27 overs.
Wanting to rebuild, Wyatt remained gritty and was well accompanied by Alice Davidson-Richards and the 34-run stand came to a close with the wicket of Danni Wyatt on 43(50). Sophie Ecclestone’s proactive approach got her to stitch a crucial partnership alongside Alice Richards which was worth 49 runs before departing on the score of 31(33). Alice Richards was then joined by Charlie Dean and she too went on to make a very handy contribution as the 50-run stand between the two pushed England to finish on 227 as the two remained unbeaten on scores of 50(61) and 24(21) respectively.
India with the ball had Jhulan Goswami and Deepti Sharma star in the show with respective figures of 10-2-20-1 and 10-1-33-2. Others among wickets were Meghna Singh (1), Rajeshwari Gayakwad (1), Sneh Rana (1) and Harleen Deol (1).
2nd innings : India – 232/3 (44.2)
India in reply lost Shafali Verma early for 1 and out walked Yastika Bhatia who alongside Smriti Mandhana guided India’s chase. Yastika intently got her innings underway and was well complimented by Smriti Mandhana from the other end. Yastika with a boundary got to her 4th ODI half-century off 45 balls and departed just after which put a full stop to the partnership worth 96. Harmanpreet Kaur then paired up alongside Smriti Mandhana who soon got to her and carried on at the same pace but when moved into the 90s departed on 91(99) which also got the partnership worth 99 to a close. Harmanpreet Kaur soon got to her 50* and switched gears smashing a few boundaries and then with a maximum sealed the game for India remaining unbeaten on 74(94), while Harleen Deol with not a lot to do, remained unbeaten on 6(20) in handing India a 7-wicket win in the 45th over.
All 90s scores for Smriti Mandhana
94* vs Sri Lanka, 2022
91 vs England, today
90* vs New Zealand, 2019
90 vs England, 2017#ENGvIND #CricketTwitter pic.twitter.com/hucwe02dpK— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) September 18, 2022
England had leaky overs come from Issy Wong as she conceded 7 runs per over off her 5 and also Alice Richards. Emma Lamb bowled her 3 overs conceding 16 runs and Sophie Ecclestone finished her 9 overs having conceded 42 runs but remained wicketless. Kate Cross was the best on the show as she closed out on figures of 10-1-43-2 and Charlie Dean too had a good outing as he had a wicket to her name and an economy rate of 4.5 off her 10 overs.
Comfortable 7 Wicket victory with 34 Balls still remaining, India has started the ODI series on a winning note#ENGvIND #CricketTwitter pic.twitter.com/OpCfEnTTaF
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) September 18, 2022
Result : India won by 7 wickets
A dominating win this was for India as they’ve got the much-wanted 1-0 lead in the 3-match series. India first with the ball restricted England from converting their slow starts and then to have commandingly closed out with the bat, just was a clinical outing as a whole. England don’t require any chop and change but have got to ask their openers to play with a lot more freedom and control the game right from ball 1 to set it up well for the batters coming in.