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England gained a 1-0 lead in the Twenty20
International series against India when Nat Sciver-Brunt and Danni Wyatt saved
their team from a 2 for 2 situation.
After Renuka Singh had reduced the visitors to 2 for 2
in the opening over of the match at Wankhede Stadium, both players scored quick
half-centuries in a stand of 138 runs from just 87 balls, ultimately propelling
England to their second-highest T20I score against India, which proved too high
a target even for Shafali Verma’s 42-ball 52.
Playing in her 150th T20I, Wyatt withdrew from the
WBBL at the end of the English summer, claiming the beginning of weariness. She
returned to the game with ease after a seven-week break. She scored eight fours
and two sixes in her 75 from 47 balls. When Sciver-Brunt sat out England’s
unexpected 2-1 T20I series loss to Sri Lanka in September, she provided the
missing piece that the visitors desperately needed with a 53-ball 77.
Sciver-Brunt, who had bowled infrequently in the Ashes white-ball phase following
a knee injury she sustained in the Test match against Australia in June, also
took a wicket with her second ball, dismissing Smriti Mandhana for just six.
Playing for the first time after having surgery on a
dislocated right shoulder in August, left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone
finished her first T20I match against India with a 3 for 15 total from four
overs. As her side dispelled the doubts that had plagued their short-form game
just three months ago, Freya Kemp, the teenage all-rounder who had been playing
exclusively as a batter since suffering a back injury on England’s Caribbean
tour a year ago, chipped in with the wicket of Jemimah Rodrigues, also for single
figures.
Shafali struck three of her nine boundaries off one
Sciver-Brunt over. She was a force to be reckoned with, especially early in her
innings. However, she lacked the backing of her teammates, and the home
audience fell silent when Ecclestone and Glenn worked together to remove her,
with Ecclestone swinging wildly at one that he tossed up on off stump and Glenn
picking out at backward point. In the 19th over, Sciver-Brunt took the catch
when Kanika Ahuja flung up another one that went awry. Glenn chipped in with 1
for 25 from her four overs, and England’s win was anything but clinical after
their early stumble, leaving India to lament a shoddy fielding effort.