Women’s T20 WC: India lose by 11 runs to England

Medium pacer Renuka Singh’s fifer and vice-captain Smriti Mandhana’s fine half-century went in vain as India lost to England by 11 runs to suffer their first defeat in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup here on Saturday. Renuka Singh registered her best bowling figures (5/15) to help India restrict England to 151 for seven after Harmanpreet Kaur opted to bowl. Renuka did the early damage, picking up the first three wickets to peg England back and then returned to take two more towards the fag end of the innings. In the chase, vice-captain Smriti Mandhana led the charge with a 41-ball 52, which was studded with seven boundaries and a six, while Richa Ghosh remained unbeaten on 47 off 34 balls as India fell short by 11 runs, managing 140 for 5 in their 20 overs. India did not have the best of starts, losing Shafali Verma in the fourth over. Jemimah Rodrigues and Harmanpreet too departed in quick succession as India slumped to 62 for 3 in 10.2 overs. But Mandhana and Ghosh shared a 43-run fourth-wicket stand to keep India in the hunt. But England skipper Heather Knight made some brilliant bowling changes towards the end to stifle India’s run flow. Needing 34 runs off the final two overs, Sophie Ecclestone bowled a brilliant penultimate over, giving away just three runs and also accounted for the wicket of Deepti Sharma. In the final over, the asking became too steep, but Ghosh found the boundary twice and also hit a six off Katherine Sciver-Brunt, but it was not enough.