England, the defending champions were finally able to end their 3 match losing streak as they defeated team India by 4 wickets on Wednesday at Mount Maunganui. The English bowlers were excellent with the ball as they restricted team India to just 134. Anya Shrubsole who’s had a great record against India chipped in with early wickets in Yastika Bhatia and Mithali Raj. Later, Charlotte Dean picked 4 for 23 and destroyed the middle order of team India. This resulted in team India getting bundled out for 134 in 36.2 overs.
The English batters struggled at the beginning losing both the openers in the first 3 overs. Captain Heather Knight and Nat Sciver stitched in an excellent 65 run partnership for the 3rd wicket. The England batters lost 3 more as they were about to reach the target. Heather Knight kept her cool and took England past the finishing line helping them win their first match in the tournament by 4 wickets.
Speaking about the first win in the 2022 WC, Anya Srubsole who reached 100 ODI wickets said, “It’s really pleasing to get a win on the board with a pretty good performance and hopefully this is the start of some wins. This is one of the 4 matches we have to win. We will make sure to continue this performance against New Zealand at Auckland.”
While talking about the fielding efforts in the first 3 matches. Shrubsole felt that the team was figuring out what really the problem was. She also added, “I do think sometimes fielding, it just seems to be something that kind of spreads and if you drop the first catch in the game, lots of things seem to go from there.”
She also felt that the first catch that Sophie Dunkley caught really helped them gain more confidence to the rest of the fielders. We have to make sure we keep our confidence level up and do well on the field. We accept that we were really bad on the fielding part in the first 3 matches, especially the 2nd and 3rd which resulted in us losing. She feels that the team must continue the positive approach and be better on the field in the next 3 games as well.
NRR is going to play a crucial role leading up to the tournament here.
England are to face NZ, PAK and BAN next.#CWC22 #ENGvIND #TeamEngland pic.twitter.com/uDn96L1s22
— Female Cricket #CWC22 (@imfemalecricket) March 16, 2022
Shrubsole also felt proud of Charlotte Dean performance in the match as she broke the back of team India and helped England bundle them out for 134. She wants Dean to continue her good run in the upcoming matches as well.
England will play their 5th match against New Zealand on Sunday, 20th March at Auckland. England must win all their remaining 3 matches in order to stay in contention for a semifinal spot.
Follow Female Cricket on Instagram and Twitter for all the latest news and updates around Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022
Loves all things female cricket
