Twitter Reactions: Deepti Sharma and spinners steer India to series equaliser in thriller

The second T20I between India Women and England Women on Sunday, July 11, turned out to be a low-scoring thriller. The match went down to the last over when the hosts needed 14 runs, but India held their nerve and romped to an eight-wicket win. With the series level at 1-1, the deciding game is set to be played on Wednesday at the County Ground in Chelmsford.

Shafali propels India

After being sent in to bat first, India got off to a flying start courtesy of a 70-run opening partnership between Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana. Although the latter got out for 20, Shafali carried on and scored a 38-ball 48 with eight fours and one six before getting out to Mady Villiers.

Harmanpreet Kaur returned to form with a 25-ball 31, laced with two fours and as many sixes. Deepti Sharma couldn’t go beyond a run-a-ball, but her 24-run knock took India to 148. For the home team, Katherine Brunt, Freya Davies, Sarah Glenn, and Villiers shared one wicket each.

Poonam, Deepti star

In their run-chase, England were on the driver’s seat as at one stage, they needed 42 runs off 39 balls with eight wickets in hand. After the fall of Danielle Wyatt and Nat Sciver’s early wickets, Tammy Beaumont and Heather Knight put together a partnership of 75 runs for the third wicket.

But after Deepti got rid of Beaumont, who scored 59 with seven fours, England’s batting capitulated. Knight scored 30, but she was run out in the very next ball after Beaumont’s dismissal. Poonam Yadav, thereafter, picked two wickets as England could get up to only 140 in their 20 overs.

Credit to the fielders: Harmanpreet Kaur

Following the win, Harmanpreet, the Indian skipper, was delighted with the bowlers’ performance. She also credited the fielders for staying on their toes and not letting any chances go.

“I would give credit to our bowlers. Was very important on these wickets as the ball was coming nicely on to the bat. Credit to the fielders as well for doing well. We always want to win wherever we go,” Harmanpreet was quoted as saying after the game.

Knight, the English captain, on the other hand, wasn’t quite happy with how the batters performed. She urged her team to go for the kill in the series decider.

“We were in a great position and asked the batting group to be ruthless, we got to be better in the next game. We got a strong batting lineup and shouldn’t be losing that. We can’t lose the series now and we are now going to Chelmsford and looking forward to winning the series there.” Knight added.

Here’s how the netizens reacted to India’s win: