India cruise past England to clinch T20 series win

Emirates Old Trafford’s fourth T20

England 126-7 (20 overs): Dunkley 22 (19), Radha 2-15, Charani 2-30

India 127-4 (17 overs): Mandhana 32 (31), Verma 31 (19), Wong 1-18

India won by six wickets to lead the five-match series 3-1.

With just six wickets to spare, India cruised to a historic T20 series victory over England at Old Trafford.

By the end of the powerplay, the tourists had already beaten their target by a score of 126-7 in the fourth T20.

In a stand of 56, openers Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma relentlessly attacked the England bowlers, and while their run-rate slowed as they left, India remained in command.

Jemimah Rodrigues and Captain Harmanpreet Kaur sat under a brief spell of pressure, but they eventually settled and fled home.

After Harmanpreet was dismissed, Rodrigues was given the task of securing India’s first women’s T20 series victory in England by scoring the winning runs in the 17th over.

England had earlier gone nine overs without a boundary in their innings, and with Sophia Dunkley’s top score of 22, they were never likely to post a winning total.

Radha Yadav and Shree Charani, both left-armers, scored two wickets each for Spin, again proving their demise.

England chose to bat first, as they did in the third T20, but there was no reversal of that success at Manchester despite a fantastic opening stand.

After Danni Wyatt-Hodge snuck into Deepti Sharma for her third single-digit series score, Yadav made a fine diving catch.

With wickets falling consistently throughout the innings, England found themselves in a perpetual rebuild, which was typical of India’s field efforts.

The largest of the 35-piece partnership between Tammy Beaumont and Alice Capsey was won by Radha, who sent her way with a few words and a long look.

As India’s spinners bowled with impressive discipline and faced off against the home batters, that wicket came two balls after what proved to be England’s final boundary until the 19th over.

The final 10 overs, to be exact, saw a less than ideal combination of very few runs and regular wickets, 5-58, 5-58, 5-58, 5-58, and 5-58 respectively.

India could have gotten ahead of the competition had their goal been a modest total. Instead, they attacked.

Between them, they only needed four overs to surpass the fours that England had managed throughout their entire innings, with Mandhana serving as the team’s chief aggressor.

England will point to lost wickets and varying match situations, but their approach and India’s were completely different.

By the time Verma was caught in the deep, the tourists could afford to take their time, and even losing Mandhana a few overs later did little to aggravate the situation.

A few quiet overs in the middle were unimportant to India because of Harmanpreet’s experience and Rodrigues’ class, which proved to be.

England were desperate for something, and a poor evaluation of Harmanpreet’s lbw shout demonstrated their muddled thinking.

Despite this series, India have consistently demonstrated the clarity of thought and focus England are striving for under their new regime.

Before coming here, we had excellent camps back home, and we worked on all of our plans there. We all understood our roles and behaved accordingly.

Tammy Beaumont, England’s captain, said, “We weren’t ruthless enough with the bat. A very soft dismissal of myself included, which is unworthy of this level. India deserves praise for their excellent bowling and constant play, but we didn’t adapt quickly enough.

“We want to put on a show at Edgbaston, but we haven’t yet given a full performance.”

Alex Hartley, a former England international bowler, said in the BBC Test Match Special: “I fear watching this series and watching England at the moment.