Stand-in skipper Smriti Mandhana’s graceful maiden T20 International hundred adorned India’s smooth 97-run win over England in the opening match here on Saturday. The visitors now lead the five-match T20I series 1-0. Mandhana (112, 62 balls) and Harleen Deol (43, 23 balls) added 94 runs for the second wicket as India posted a commanding 210 for five after being invited to bat.
Skipper Nat Sciver Brunt (66, 42 balls) waged a lone battle for England, who were limited to 113 all out in 14.5 overs by the on-song Indian bowlers. For India, debutante left-arm spinner Shree Charani (4/12) was the most successful bowler, as there was nothing much left in England’s innings after they lost half of the line-up inside the first 10 overs for a sub-100 score.
Mandhana, who led the team in the absence of injured regular captain Harmanpreet Kaur, stole the day with an innings that was a full-fledged display of her style, aggression and ability to play shots around the field. She gave the Indian innings some early impetus, making 77 runs with a struggling Shafali Varma (20, 22 balls), whose return to top-flight cricket after a gap of eight months was less than satisfactory.
Mandhana was the dominant figure in that alliance off just 8.3 overs. Shafali’s dismissal did not deter Mandhana as the left-hander raised a further 94 runs for the second wicket with an equally aggressive Harleen, who was dropped on 26 by Danny Wyatt-Hodge off off-spinner Alice Capsey near mid-wicket.
Mandhana did not give any such chances to England, and she started off with three boundaries off left-arm spinner Linsey Smith in the fourth over, and hardly took her foot off the accelerator. Later, she also punished another left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone for two sixes in the seventh over as the Indian innings chugged along.
Mandhana brought up her fifty in 27 balls, and the next 50 came off just 24 balls. Mandhana soon went past 87, her previous best in T20Is, and touched the three-figure mark for the first time in her career that has 30 fifties. She reached the coveted milestone in style too, hammering pacer Lauren Bell for two consecutive boundaries.
Her knock is the highest for India in T20Is, surpassing Harmanpreet’s 103. At the other end, Deol relied more on sweeps to fetch boundaries, using the general lack of direction of English bowlers on the day till she fell to Bell, who was England’s most successful bowler (3/27).
Story continues below this ad
Mandhana was eventually dismissed by Ecclestone but not before taking India to a position of strength. England tried to stage a late comeback as Bell removed Richa Ghosh (12) and Jemimah Rodrigues (0) in the 18th over but by then India were already closing in on the 200-run mark.
