England women’s team defeated India comprehensively by 8 wickets in the deciding T20I of the three-match series in Chelmsford on Wednesday. Chasing 154 in 20 overs, the hosts rode on an emphatic 112-run partnership for the second wicket between Danielle Wyatt and Natalie Sciver to clinch victory.
The hosts lost an early wicket after opener Tammy Beaumont was trapped in front of the stumps by Deepti Sharma for 11 but the stand between Wyatt and Sciver steadied the ship for the side.
While Wyatt remained unbeaten at 89, Sciver was eventually cleaned up by Sneh Rana for 42. England didn’t see any further fall of wickets as Wyatt and captain Heather Knight took them over the line in the 19th over.
Earlier, India who batted first started the proceedings in a disappointing manner after losing Shafali Verma and Harleen Deol early in the innings. But Smriti Mandhana and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur showed some resistance and the two batters put 68 runs for the third wicket before Kaur departed for 36 off 26.
Mandhana continued her form and notched up a fifty before getting out to Brunt for 70 off 50. Wicket-keeper batter was the only third batter to have crossed the double-figure mark apart from Mandhana and Kaur after she chipped in with a 13-ball 20 that included four boundaries.
India eventually managed to score 153/6 in 20 overs. For England, it was Ecclestone who returned with a three-for while Brunt scalped a couple of wickets.
India captain Kaur expressed disappointment at losing the series.
“Firstly, we're thankful to the support we've got in all the games from the crowd. But yes, it was disappointing to not finish with a win. We could have scored a bit more runs with the bat and then dew made it tough in the second innings. Someone had to bat till the very end, it was something we had talked about but didn't happen today. Hopefully it will come off soon,” she said.
England skipper Knight was ‘pleased’ with the way her team performed in this bilateral tie.
“Really pleased with the girls. After the game at Hove, we wanted to take more responsibility. Happy for Danny, she had worked really hard and it's paid off today. We all know how good she is, probably hasn't scored as many runs as she could in the last 18 months. She put her head down and did what she does well - she loves being aggressive and scoring boundaries,” she said.
India had suffered a 2-1 defeat in the ODI series as well earlier and lost the T20Is by the same margin.