Danielle Wyatt scored an unbeaten 64 off 55 balls at the top of the English batting order to ensure a five-wicket win for the visitors in the second T20I. With the second consecutive win, the English, who recently lost the ODI series, now lead the three-match series 2-0 against the Women in Blue.
After winning the first game of the T20I series, the England women’s team won the toss and chose to field first against India in the second T20I in Guwahati. Bharati Fulmali made her debut in the senior India women’s team in this match.
Pretty much like the first game, the Indian to-order had a terrible start today as well as captain Smriti Mandhana (12) departed early in the third over India’s score was only 24. She was soon followed by Jemimah Rodrigues (2) and Harleen Deol (14) and the hosts were left reeling at 34/3 inside the powerplay period. However, Mithali Raj tried to stitch together a couple of partnerships with Deepti Sharma (18) and Fulmali (18) in the middle overs but think didn’t work out well for India as the ODI skipper got out for 20 off 27. As there were not many contributions from the batters in the lower middle-order and lower-order, India could manage only 111/8 in their stipulated 20 overs. Katherine Brunt was the pick of the English bowlers as she finished with figures of 3/17 in four overs.
Defending a low total, Radha Yadav provided a good start to the Indian bowlers as she got rid of Tammy Beaumont, who was the top scorer in the first game, in the fifth over. With Wyatt trying to recover England from troubled waters, they kept on losing wickets at regular intervals at the other end. At one point in time, the visiting team was in dire straits with the scorecard reading 56/4 inside 11 overs. Slow-left armer Ekta Bisht was the wrecker in chief for India as she brought the home side back in this game by dismissing Natalie Sciver and captain Heather Knight in consecutive overs. However, Lauren Winfield and Wyatt added 47 runs for the fifth wicket and put England in the driver’s seat. Winfield got out for 29 in the 18th over while player of the match - Wyatt scored her third T20I fifty helping the England team win the game in the last over and take an unassailable lead in the series.