London, July 13 (UNI) England claimed a consolation win in the final T20 of the series against India as they edged a last-ball thriller at Edgbaston.
Chasing 168, England needed six from the final over with seven wickets in hand, but lost stand-in captain Tammy Beaumont and Amy Jones to leave one run needed from the final delivery.
Sophie Ecclestone and Paige Scholfield scampered the single to survive the scare and seal a five-wicket win, though Ecclestone would have been run out with a direct hit from Jemimah Rodrigues at mid-off on last night.
The tense finish concluded England’s highest successful chase in a home T20, which was set up by Danni Wyatt-Hodge’s 56 from 36 balls on her 300th international appearance in an opening stand of 101 with Sophia Dunkley.
Beaumont’s 30 seemed to set up England’s push for victory, but she was bowled from the first ball of Arundhati Reddy’s closing over and Jones was dismissed by a phenomenal catch from Radha Yadav on the mid-wicket boundary.
Earlier, opener Shafali Verma played a lone hand in India’s 167-7 with a sensational 75 from 41 balls.
Verma whacked 13 fours and a six in her knock but struggled for support, with Richa Ghosh’s 24 the second-highest contribution as England chipped away with wickets throughout the middle overs to stall their scoring.
Charlie Dean was the pick with 3-23, including Verma, Sophie Ecclestone took 2-28 and Linsey Smith picked up 1-26.
The one-day international series begins at Southampton on July 16, which will be England’s final three matches in the format before the World Cup starts at the end of September.
India’s opening partnership between Smriti Mandhana and Verma has been a thorn in England’s side throughout the series, with three of their five stands bringing fifty or more runs, according to a BBC news.
With the series gone, England coach Charlotte Edwards made three changes including a rest for quicks Lauren Bell and Lauren Filer, presenting opportunities for left-armer Smith and seamer Em Arlott after missing the previous two matches.
Both marked their returns immediately with Arlott claiming the huge wicket of Mandhana, caught at point for eight in the second over, and Smith bowled Rodrigues for one in the third.
But Verma was ruthless – anything full was pumped down the ground, and her placement was sublime, frequently picking gaps through the leg side when anything was fractionally short.
The opener added 66 for the third wicket with skipper Harmanpreet Kaur before the spinners efficiently put the brakes on the innings in the middle overs.
Harmanpreet was bowled by Dean for 15, Harleen Deol was lbw to Ecclestone for four before Dean struck the hammer blow with Verma sensationally caught at long-on by a diving Maia Bouchier in her first appearance of the series.
At 116-5, India were on the ropes but it is testament to their much-improved strength in depth that they recovered to post a respectable total – despite the eventual result – with 24 from wicketkeeper Richa Ghosh and a run-a-ball 14 from Yadav.
While the spinners’ efforts were encouraging, with all three conceding seven runs or fewer per over, Arlott and Issy Wong were targeted and finished with figures of 1-42 and 0-47 respectively.
England stand-in captain Tammy Beaumont said, “It’s been a difficult series for us but credit to India, they’ve come over and played some challenging cricket with real power in their batting line-up. At times we haven’t had the right answers.”
India captain Harmanpreet Kaur said, “I am really happy with the way we played today. It was a very close game. The team put up a great effort in the end.”
“We thought England played really good cricket. But the way we fought back was outstanding. We will go [into the ODI series] with the same mindset that we have played in the T20 series.”
Player of the match, England spinner Charlie Dean said, “Shafali Verma was creating width and we had to bowl really tight lines. I kept things really simple today which maybe I hadn’t done in the past – and I am really happy with that.”
