Deepti Sharma stars as India pip England in first women’s ODI

After beating hosts England Women in the T20I series, India Women got the ODI leg of their tour off to a strong start by chasing down 259 with 10 deliveries to spare in Southampton.

The result leaves England needing to win the second ODI at Lord’s this week to save the series. 

Set a target of 259, India were given a decent start of 48 by their openers Pratika Rawal (36) and Smriti Mandhana (28) which was snapped in the eighth over when the latter nicked a delivery from Lauren Bell. 

Rawal was the next to be dismissed when she played around a top ball from Sophie Ecclestone and was bowled, leaving India 94/2 in the 19th over, Eight runs later, Alice Davidson-Richards nailed a direct hit to run out Harleen Deol, and not too long after Harmanpreet Kaur was trapped lbw by Charlie Dean after the bowler opted to review a not out decision. 

At 124/4 in the 29th over, India were in some trouble. From here, though, Deepti Sharma and Jemimah Rodrigues put on 90 to breath live back into the chase. Deepti, given a huge slice of life when England did not opt for an lbw review when the batter was on 40, reached her half-century in 52 deliveries and finished the job with an unbeaten 62 off 64.

She threw her head back in despair when Rodrigues (48) was dismissed with India needing 45 runs to win, but found another ally in Amanjot Kaur who made 20 not out from 14 balls to help get India across the line. 

Earlier, after Nat-Sciver Brunt won the toss and opted to bat, England were driven to 258/6 in their 50 overs by birthday girl Sophia Dunkley (83 off 92 balls) and Davidson-Richards (53 from 73) with India doing decently to keep striking before any batter could really tee off. 

The hosts were in trouble at 20/2 after Kranti Goud sent back the openers Amy Jones (1) and Tammy Beaumont (5) – bowled and lbw respectively – before Sciver-Brunt and Emma Lamb forged a recovery. The pair added 71 for the third wicket, only for India to peg England back again.

In the 19th over, Lamb (39 off 50 balls) chipped a ball from Sneh Rana to mid-off, and then in her next over the offspinner added Sciver-Brunt (41 off 52) when a firm shot towards short midwicket was intercepted by Rodrigues.

Once again, England had to look for a partnership to revive the innings from 97/4 in the 21st over. Dunkley and Davidson-Richards put on a record sixth-wicket stand worth 106 to get the score past 200, with the former taking 68 balls for her fifty. That England did not get more than 258 owed to India clawing back again, with Davidson-Richards stumped off the bowling off Shree Charani. 

Sophie Ecclestone chipped in with 23 not out from 19 balls, while Dunkley was out off the last ball of the innings, bowled by Amanjot.