Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], December 9 (ANI): Following her side’s hard-fought four-wicket win in the second T20I, England skipper Heather Knight said that spinner Charlie Dean bowled well in the powerplay and appreciated the bowling performance of her team in general.
England skittled out India for just 80 in 16.2 overs, but were made to toil hard for each run during the chase. Despite an amazing fight put up by Indian bowlers, England won the match by four wickets and bagged the series 2-0 with a match to go.
“A really brilliant game and the crowd was outstanding, you felt the pressure out in the middle. She (Dean) bowled a lot for us in the powerplay, she also allowed us to have that balance in the side and I thought our bowling group bowled well. I thought it was quite hard for our openers and I thought Renuka bowled really well and the job was to score as many in the powerplay and not lose too many wickets. We have a Test match coming up and we want to win the series 3-0,” said Heather in the post-match presentation.
Coming to the match, England opted to field first. Jemimah Rodrigues (30) and Smriti Mandhana (10) were the only players to get to double figures as India was bundled out for 80 runs. Dean took 2/16 in her four overs. Sarah Glenn, Sophie Ecclestone and Lauren Bell also delivered economical overs and took two wickets. Nat Sciver Brunt and Freya Kemp took a wicket each but the spinners took a larger share of wickets.
In the chase of 81, England lost openers Sophia Dunkley and Danni Wyatt to Renuka Singh (2/26), reducing them to 19/2. Nat Sciver (16) joined hands with youngster Alice Capsey (25) and took England to the cusp of a win, but a fighting spell by Deepti Sharma (2/4) and Pooja Vastrakar (1/7) reduced England to 73/6. England won the match by four wickets, with Heather Knight (7*) and Sophie Ecclestone (9*) guiding them to a win. (ANI)
