India Women suffered a big loss at the hands of England Women in the 1st T20 played at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Chasing a big total of 198 runs, the home side never gave a fight to England. However, opener Shafali Verma, completed a valiant fifty with the bat as she was the lone fighter in a one-sided affair on Wednesday (December 6).
The right-handed batter went on to stroke 52 runs in 42 deliveries with nine fours to her name. Shafali Verma was scalped by Sophie Ecclestone who scalped three wickets after giving just 15 runs from her allotted four overs.
Speaking more about the chase, India Women lost Smriti Mandhana (6) early in the innings. Jemimah Rodrigues playing in front of her home crowd also fell cheaply on four.
As mentioned above, Shafali Verma played some excellent strokes and was joined by her skipper Harmanpreet Kaur as both led the recovery work for the hosts. They started building a partnership and stitched 41 between them before Kaur was knocked over by Sophie Ecclestone on 26.
Verma kept going strong from one end and was well-supported by Richa Ghosh from the other end. They kept finding boundaries regularly and Verma brought up her fifty. The required run rate kept creeping up and Ghosh fell on 21 while trying to clear the fence. Verma fell on 52 and it was the end of the road for the India Women as they finished their innings on 159/6 to lose the game by 38 runs.
Earlier in the match, Renuka Singh scalped back to back wickets to push England Women back in the contest. However, Danielle Wyatt and Katherine Brunt were too good for Harmanpreet Kaur and Co. As a result, the visitors posted a massive 197 runs in their allotted 20 overs.
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