The spin duo of Poonam Yadav and Deepti Sharma scripted India Women’s dramatic comeback with tidy death-over spells that helped the visitors level the series with an eight-run win over England Women in the second T20I at the County Ground in Hove on Sunday.
England, needing only 33 runs off 30 balls with six wickets in hand, crumbled under the pressure generated by Poonam and Deepti, who held their nerves and were also complemented well by the fielders.
Shafali Verma’s 48 off 38 balls earlier had allowed India to post 148 for four after they were put in to bat. Off-spinner Sneh Rana defended 14 runs off the final over to cap off an impressive bowling effort from the spinners.
Leg-spinner Poonam ended with figures of two for 17 off her four overs and Deepti one for 18 off her full quota. The England innings also saw India effecting four run-out dismissals.
The series decider will be played on Wednesday.
England were in the driving seat for the major part of the chase and had reached 52 for two in the first six overs despite losing Danielle Wyatt and the in-form Natalie Sciver cheaply. The home team was cruising when Tammy Beaumont (59) and skipper Heather Knight (30) were out there in the middle, but after they were dismissed off successive balls in the 14th over bowled by Deepti Sharma, it made the task a lot tougher for England as they still needed 43 off the last 36 balls.
India then tightened the noose on a self-destructing opposition.
Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur was all praise for team’s outstanding fielding effort. “I’ll give credit to our bowlers, for the way they helped in field placement was important, and the fielding was outstanding as well,” Haramanpreet said at the post match presentation.
“We always want to win no matter how tough the situation is. This bubble life is not that easy to adapt, so we should give credit to our support staff for keeping us motivated,” she added.
Brief scores: India Women 148/4 in 20 ovs (S. Verma 48). England Women 140/8 in 20 ovs (T. Beaumont 59; P. Yadav 2/17). India Women won by 8 runs.
