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11th over: England 70-3 (Capsey 18, Jones 1 ) Amy Jones at the crease with England in a bit of a pickle.
WICKET! Tammy Beaumont c Reddy b Yadav 20 (England 68-3)
Big moment! Beaumont tries to go downtown straight after drinks but she doesn’t get enough meat on the bones, Reddy taking a tumbling grab running in from long on.
10th over: England 68-2 (Capsey 17, Beaumont 20) Beaumont steers a Reddy short ball fine for a welcome boundary. The sun still beating down at Old Trafford. England trying to get a competitive score on the board. That helps! Capsey aims a swipe at Reddy’s final ball full toss, it misses everything including the gloves of Ghosh stood up to the stumps. Four byes to the total and time for a halfway slurp.
9th over: England 58-2 (Capsey 16, Beaumont 15) India squeeze back through Amanjot Kaur. Keeper up and stump to stump. Just four runs off the over and Beaumont nearly perishes by clipping a full toss to Mandhana at short midwicket. She’s have been sick as a pig with that. Fortunately it fell a few inches short.
8th over: England 54-2 (Capsey 14, Beaumont 13) England up the ante as Beaumont slams consecutive boundaries through the covers off Sneh Ranah.
7th over: England 42-2 (Capsey 12, Beaumont 3) More spin from India as Yadav gets a bowl after taking that sharp catch to get rid of Dunkley. England can only deal in singles. India have been on it in the field so far this evening.
6th over: England 38-2 (Capsey 10, Beaumont 1) Tammy Beaumont arrives in the middle. England could do with a Captain’s innings from her now. She glides a single past point to get off the mark. Bosh! Capsey slog sweeps Sharma for four to keep England ticking.
WICKET! Sophia Dunkley c Yadav b Sharma 22 (England 33-2)
That’s a big wicket! Dunkley is in fine form but she falls to an uppish drive that Radha Yadav dives and takes at inches from the turf at point. Beaten in the flight by Deepti Sharma and England have lost both openers.
5th over: England 33-1 (Dunkley 22, Capsey 6) Charani with her lovely left arm loop once more. Capsey sweeps and is lucky that a top edge loops over the keeper and away for four! A scrambled single brings Dunkley on strike. Plonk! Dunkley clears the front leg and smears wide of mid-on for four! We might not be in for a high scoring match here, England on for about 130 at the moment compared to the 180-odd at the Oval last week.
4th over: England 23-1 (Dunkley 17, Capsey 1) A quiet start in the main from England. Arundhati Reddy comes on to bowl her medium pacers with the keeper stood up to the stumps. Just two runs off the over. Tidy.
3rd over: England 21-1 (Dunkley 16, Capsey 0) Alice Capsey arrives at number three. She’s due a score too. A truly dangerous player if she gets in.
WICKET! Danni Wyatt-Hodge c Reddy b Shree Charani 5 (England 21-1)
Here come the boundaries! Dunkley carves past point for four and then snaps the bottom hand on a drive down the ground for SIX. Comfortably clearing the ropes. Shree Charani has been in the wickets this series… and she gets another!
Wyatt-Hodge tries to replicate the six that Dunkley hit earlier in the over but plinks a toe end to Reddy who takes a decent catch pedalling backwards at mid-on. Charani now has nine wickets and counting in the series.
2nd over: England 10-0 (Dunkley 5, Wyatt-Hodge 5) Deepti Sharma rattles through the second over for just four runs. Some sprightly running from England’s openers but no boundaries as of yet.
“It’s a big ground, a hard ground to score boundaries on because of the dimensions. You’re better off playing square here, which doesn’t normally suit the women’s game because of the general strength in scoring down the ground” Says Alex Hartley on TMS, she’s got plenty experience of bowling on this ground.
1st over: England 6-0 (Dunkley 3, Wyatt-Hodge 3) No boundaries off the first over as Kaur targets both batters back of a length. Dunkley opens England’s account with a chip in the air for a couple through midwicket and Wyatt-Hodge drives smoothly past cover point. The outfield looks quite green and lush despite this MEGA heatwave we’ve been having. No hosepipe ban in Old Trafford…
Amanjot Kaur has the ball in hand, Sophia Dunkley and Danni Wyatt-Hodge will open up for England. They both got half centuries at the Oval in the last match and put on a hefty opening stand. Righto, let’s play!
The players head out onto a sun soaked Old Trafford pitch, it is actually the first time a women’s T20I has been played at the ground. These two sides last played against each other here in 1999! India squeaked home by one wicket on that occasion.
100 T20I Caps for Sophie Ecclestone tonight, she achieves the milestone on her home ground too. She’s a special player but going through a bit of a rough spot at the moment. The stage is set for a big performance.
Oh and Phil ‘Jags’ Jagielka has just presented her with her cap. She’s a big Toffees fan so will be chuffed with that.
The Lionesses are in action against the Dutch as we speak and they are showing it on the big screen at Old Trafford ahead of the match getting underway in about twenty minutes. England are 2-0 up!
Emillia Hawkins is on the tools for us, promise you’ll come back though yeh?
England win the toss and will bat first
Looks a decent Old Trafford wicket and Tammy Beaumont elects to have first use, following the blueprint that saw them succeed in South London last week.
Teams: (both sides unchanged)
India: Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), Richa Ghosh (wk), Amanjot Kaur, Deepti Sharma, Radha Yadav, Arundhati Reddy, Sneh Rana, Shree Charani
England: Sophia Dunkley, Danni Wyatt-Hodge, Alice Capsey, Tammy Beaumont (capt), Amy Jones (wk), Paige Scholfield, Sophie Ecclestone, Issy Wong, Charlie Dean, Lauren Filer, Lauren Bell
Preamble
James Wallace
Hello and welcome to the fourth T20 between England and India from Old Trafford, Manchester. The place is bathed in sunshiiiiiine ahead of tonight’s encounter, it’s a must win game (again) for the home side as they find themselves 2-1 down with two games to play.
England won an arse-nipper down at The Oval on Sunday, a victory by just five runs secured off the final ball kept their series hopes alive but there was also a calamitous batting collapse and some questionable catching on show once again.
Head Coach Charlotte Edwards will be desperate to see her side up their standards and take the series to a decider at Edgbaston on Saturday before the ODI series gets underway the following week. They’ll be without Nat Sciver-Brunt once more as the England captain recovers from a groin injury, Tammy Beaumont will take the reins for the second match in a row.
We await news of the teams and toss but will have them imminently. Play gets underway in half an hour. Join us and get in touch. D’ya know what I mean?
