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20th over: India 104-2 (Mandhana 36, Kaur 35) Five singles off Smith as India tick along, England searching for a wicket to break this partnership.
19th over: India 99-2 (Mandhana 33, Kaur 33) Ecclestone drops short and is carved away by Mandhana, she was onto that in a flash.
18th over: India 93-2 (Mandhana 28, Kaur 32) Linsey Smith returns and is immediately pinged through extra cover by Kaur. India’s captain looks in regal touch and the partnership with Mandhana goes past fifty with very little alarm. Ominous signs for England.
17th over: India 86-2 (Mandhana 27, Kaur 26) Ecclestone saunters in with braided ponytail swinging to and fro like the pendulum on a grandfather clock. Kaur lofts over cover for four and then nearly chops on next ball. The match on a knife edge.
Updated at 10.36 EDT
16th over: India 80-2 (Mandhana 26, Kaur 21) Dean is this close to pinning Kaur lbw but a leading edge comes to the Indian captain’s rescue. Time for a drink with things tightly poised. Yeh go on, milk no sugar.
15th over: India 75-2 (Mandhana 22, Kaur 20) Here comes Sophie Ecclestone, a key passage of play coming right up. The tension ramps up as the masterful Ecclestone lands it on a postage stamp just outside off stump. One ball to come in the over… Harmanpreet pounces on a fuller ball and scythes away through the covers for four. Honours even after Ecclestone’s first over.
14th over: India 70-2 (Mandhana 21, Kaur 16) Mandhana edges Dean through the vacant slip for four! Mandhana than opens the face to glide in a similar area for four more but completely intended this time. Soft hands and wonderful timing. This pair looking dangerous now, finding the boundaries more regularly. England were 66-0 at the same stage.
13th over: India 59-2 (Mandhana 11, Kaur 15) Seven off Sciver-Brunt’s over, the crowd voice their pleasure as Kaur picks the gap behind square to get another boundary.
Updated at 10.16 EDT
12th over: India 52-2 (Mandhana 10, Kaur 9) Dean finds the outside edge of Kaur’s blade and it races away for four in the vacant point region. That’s India’s fifty up. Dean whirls away and stitches together five dots to end a good over.
11th over: India 48-2 (Mandhana 10, Kaur 5) Kaur gets off the mark with a clip off the pads that trickles into the boundary rope at deep midwicket. Just as well as the India skipper wasn’t exactly sprinting the runs.
10th over: India 42-2 (Mandhana 9, Kaur 0) Harmanpreet Kaur joins Smriti Mandhana in the middle. This is the key partnership, as if you didn’t know.
ShareWICKET! Harleen Deol lbw b Dean 24 (India 42-2)
Charlie Dean into the attack and she gets rid of Deol! After two fours earlier in the over Dean strikes with one that just straightened and hit Deol bang in front. Deol starts walking off but then Mandhana signals for a review… the umpires have a brief chat and confirm that the request was too late and Deol has to depart. The review would have been burnt, it was smashing into middle and off stump. Big strike for Dean and England.
9th over: India 34-1 (Mandhana 9, Deol 16) Nat Sciver-Brunt brings herself on to replace Lauren Bell. Amy Jones is up to the stumps and enacts a razor sharp take off the first ball that Deol has a waft at. NSB drifts onto the pads and is clipped away uppishly by Deol and the ball beats the converging fielders to the boundary sponge at midwicket. Only a single off the rest of the over though, England managing to keep India tied down on what looks like a belter of a surface.
8th over: India 29-1 (Mandhana 9, Deol 11) Linsey Smith rattles through another frugal over, just two singles to long on off it. Her economy is the best of any bowler in the tournament, no one has been to hit her around the park.. yet.
7th over: India 27-1 (Mandhana 8, Deol 10) Bell squares Deol up with a jaffa that nips away late but follows up with a loose ball on the hip that is paddled away for four. Shot! Deol then plays a cracker of a cover drive to get four more. Up there for shot of the day, hold the pose! The crowd enjoyed that one, India break the shackles.
6th over: India 18-1 (Mandhana 7, Deol 2) Linsey Smith nearly snares her first and it’s the biog Kahuna Mandhana who flicks in the air to Tammy Beaumont at square leg. The ball died on Beaumont before she could get her fingers underneath it, very close though and Beaumont looks disappointed she didn’t make a better attempt. Goes down as a half chance I reckon. Smith has started miserly, just six runs off her first three overs and could have picked up a couple of wickets with some more dynamic fielding.
5th over: India 17-1 (Mandhana 6, Deol 2)Mandhana plays a picture perfect drive but England have a cover sweeper in position. The crowd purr in appreciation of the shot. Bell stays full and gets one to jag back to Deol that narrowly avoids the bails. Lovely ball. An outswinger then beats Deol’s swish outside off stump. Top over from Lauren Bell.
4th over: India 16-1 (Mandhana 5, Deol 2) Harleen Deol is the new batter. Smith scuds one onto her front pad bang in front but the new batter is saved by a tickle off the inside edge. It was clonking into middle stump. Deol gets off the mark with a tickle fine. England are on the prowl.
ShareWICKET! Pratika Rawal c †Jones b Bell 6 (India 13-1)
Bell gifts a couple of leg side wides and is bowling full to find some swing. Rawal punches her for four but then nicks off next ball! A nothing shot to a cross seam ball outside off stump, Amy Jones takes the catch.
England have their first and Charlie Dean breathes the deepest sigh of relief.
3rd over: India 13-1 (Mandhana 4)
2nd over: India 6-0 (Mandhana 3, Rawal 2) DROP! Charlie Dean spills a diving chance off Smith’s first ball! Gah. That was very catchable diving away to her left, Rawal just plinked it in the air to short cover. Both batters collect a single as Smith is on the button from the get go. Just two off the over and should’ve been a wicket. It’s not going to be on of those fielding performances from England is it?
Updated at 09.34 EDT
1st over: India 4-0 (Mandhana 2, Rawal 1) Bell is full and getting some early swing. Pratika Rawal gets off the mark with a punch past point and the dangerous Smriti Mandhana comes on strike. Bell nearly cleans her up first ball! An inside edge skates past the stumps and they collect a couple. A wide down the leg side from Bell and a dot ball finish the first over. Linsey Smith is going to share the new ball with her left arm darts.
Updated at 09.35 EDT
Here come the India openers, the lights are on and the dew has come down. Lauren Bell will start with the ball for England. Let’s play!
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James Wallace
Thanks Daniel and hello all. I just had a Two Ronnies worthy conversation with my wife and sister-in-law about making myself scarce after Sunday lunch to cover the cricket.
“Where is it?”
“Indore”
Cue two minutes of confusion about whether the game was being played under a roof or even in the western suburbs of Sheffield (in Dore…)
“But it is chucking it down with rain…”
Anyway everyone is older and not a great deal wiser and we have an interesting match on our hands. Heather Knight and Nat Sciver-Brunt were once again a class apart from the rest of their teammates who fell in a bit of a heap towards the end of the innings.
Heather Knight spoke to the TV cameras after her century:
“I am really pleased to contribute. I have been fairly quiet the last few games but it was nice to play on that wicket. We are just above par but we will have to bowl well.”
“I took time to get in. It was tacky at first but I put my foot down. Nat [Sciver-Brunt] and I got things moving and my sweeps seemed effective today.
“It is a super fast outfield here so it can be easy to score quickly. If the seamers play well and keep their lines, that will be important. We need to take early breakthroughs and they will probably get a partnership that we will try to break.”
An England win will see them qualify for the semis. India’s chase will be underway very shortly.
ShareEngland post 288-8
Tell you what, that might do it for England. So hard to say. One handy stand at the top of the innings, and one worth a 113 between Sciver-Brunt and the centurion Knight, were the standouts. But wickets fell in clumps.
I honestly don’t know what to make of it.
Dean ends not-out on 19 having clubbed the second last ball of the innings for four wide of long-on. Maybe that’ll be the difference? Or maybe they have more than enough? Or maybe they’re 20-odd short.
Steering you through the next innings witll be the wonderful James Wallace.
Over to you Jimbo!
ShareWICKET! Ecclestone run-out (Mandhana) 3 (England 280-8)
Sophie’s gone! Dean’s reverse sweep off Charani found open space but there was never a run there. Eccelstone did well to make ground but she was always going to be short if the pick and throw was clean.
ShareWICKET! Lamb c Manhana b Sharma 11 (England 276-7)
Lamb sacrifices herself for the cause! What choice did she have? She had to try and belt a six. Sharma had a little biut extra on it and the ball skies towards the fielder at long-on who takes a regulation catch. Sharma closes out with 4-51 from her 10.
49th over: England 277-7 (Dean 12, Ecclestone 1)
48th over: England 269-6 (Lamb 11, Dean 5) Poor fielding in the deep hands England their first boundary in four overs. Lamb’s pull off Rana wasn;t exactly belted, but the diving fielder couldn’t haul it in. Five singles before then means it’s a decent haul for an England team that needed a lift after being kept in a cage.
47th over: England 260-6 (Lamb 5, Dean 2) The last three overs have bagged three English wickets for just 14 runs. India have done brilliantly to claw their way back into this.
ShareWICKET! Capsey c Deol b Sharma 2 (England 257-6)
They’re falling like flies now! Fair play to Capsey, she tried to make something out of nothing. But Sharma is too slick for her as she noticed the batter move early into position to reverse scoop. Sharma pushed her line towards leg stump but Capsey was already committed. The reverse pull was messy and the catch taken at cover was a simple one for Deol.
Updated at 08.39 EDT
46th over: England 255-5 (Lamb 3, Capsey 1) Two wickets in two overs have put the skids on this innings. But no time for thought. England need to squeeze as much as they can from the remaining overs. Every ball must go.
ShareWICKET! Dunkley c Sharma b Shree Charani 15 (England 254-5)
And another! India are pulling this back. Dunkley skips down the track and tries to loft a drive down the ground for six. It looked good, but she didn’t have enough on it and picked out Sharma at long-off who pouched it as she tumbled backwards.
45th over: England 252-4 (Dunkley 15, Lamb 2) I asked if that run-out was the game because I feel that might be the difference between an insurmountable target and something India could haul in. Six runs off that over plus the crucial wicket of Knight.
ShareWICKET! Knight run-out (AB Kaur/Ghosh) 109 (England 249-4)
Is that the game? Knight drags a pull shot into the deep and sets off. She turns to come back for a second but the throw from Kaur is perfect. She’s nowhere near safety and Knight has to go. What a disappointing end. There really was no need to take on the arm just yet. England must now navigate these final overs without their set batter.