England lost six wickets but this was still a shellacking. India were routed for 80 as the visitors secured a Twenty20 international series win, chasing down their target at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai inside 12 overs.
All six members of Heather Knight’s bowling attack were joyous before Alice Capsey top-scored in the chase with a 21-ball 25 as the tourists went 2–0 up with a game still in the bag.
Charlie Dean, back after recovering from illness, took the new ball and struck quickly to have Shafali Verma lbw for a second-ball duck. With her sliding, skidding off-breaks and subtle variations, the England spinner had Verma’s opening partner, Smriti Mandhana, trapped in front three overs later.
The pads continued to take a battering: Harmanpreet Kaur was leg-before to Nat Sciver-Brunt for nine and Jemimah Rodrigues – who offered some much-needed resistance with a 33-ball 30 – suffered from the same mode of dismissal to Sarah Glenn.
Sophie Ecclestone stunned herself with a low, diving one-handed return catch off Richa Ghosh, and there was no lower-order rearguard that threatened a three-figure score; Rodrigues and Mandhana were the only two batters to make it to double figures.
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England’s three spinners shared six wickets, Lauren Bell took two for 18, while Sciver-Brunt and Freya Kemp took a wicket apiece.
Leg-side wides from Renuka Singh meant England had six runs on the board before a legitimate delivery was bowled, but the opening pair of Sophia Dunkley and Danni Wyatt did not last long. The former was scratchy in compiling nine before falling to Renuka, who went through Wyatt with a tasty-shaping inswinger. A 42-run stand between Capsey and Sciver-Brunt eased any concerns, and even a late collapse – Deepti Sharma took two wickets with two balls – was not to get in England’s way.
Ecclestone applied the rough finishing touches, surviving the hat-trick delivery before winning it with an outside edge to the boundary.
“It didn’t go to plan at the end but the main thing is we got over the line and we secured the series,” Capsey told the host broadcaster. “We still haven’t played a perfect game of cricket yet, which is really exciting, and playing in India against a quality side is a really nice challenge.”
