When all the England known batters were out when Indian stand-in skipper Harmanpreet Kaur had applied relentless pressure, in walked Sophia Dunkley, plying only her second ODI. But the way she played, carrying the team over her young shoulders to victory, no one would believe that it was only her second ODI game and that she was only a few days old in 50 overs international5 cricket.
Riding on the back of her unbeaten 73 from 81, the England Women beat India Women in the second ODI by five wickets to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series. Dunkley was ably supported by Jones at first and then bowling all-rounder Katharine Brunt.
In fact, Brunt and Dubnkley added unbeaten 92 for the sixth wicket, which is now the highest sixth-wicket partnership in ODIs for English Women in the history of the game. They broke the previous record held by Amy Jones and Jenny Gunn.
India started their defence of a modest 221 very well with Jhulan Goswami removing last match’s Player of the Match, Tammy Beaumont at the score of 22. From there onwards, the Indian team got into the rhythms and kept on taking wickets, eventually reducing England to 92-4 in the 22nd over.
There was a controversial decision just before the fourth wicket fell when Harmanpreet claimed a catch of England vice-captain Natalie Sciver when the score was only 82/3. But the umpire’s soft signal called it not out and due to lack of evidence, the third umpire could not overturn it. However, it didn’t hurt India as much as Sciver was anyways removed early.
Post that wicket though, it was all England and Dunkley as a somewhat weird approach of saving the runs and not going for wickets cost India Women the game.
Earlier in the day, England skipper Heather Knight won the toss and asked India to bat first. Openers Smriti Mandhan and Shafali Verma did give a positive start, adding 56 for the first wicket in 11 overs. However, post their dismissal, no batter was able to stand alongside the skipper Mithali Raj, who played a lone hand to take her team near to 200. She had a 68 run stand with Harman, but in that also, the vice-captain kept on struggling.
If not for some late flourish by number 10 and 11 in Jhulan and Poonam Yadav who together added 29 in just 22 balls, India might have been staring at a below 200 total. From 192-7 with Mithali gone, the last pair added crucial runs. Kate Cross was the pick of the bowlers for England Women as he picked up five wickets for just 34 runs in her 10 overs. For this performance of her, she was named Player of the Match.
With two losses in a row, Team India would now take the field on July 3 at New Road, Worcester to salvage some pride and test its bench strength.