- Over-by-over coverage of the second T20 match at Hove
- Sciver’s hitting gives England win over India in first T20
- Any thoughts? Mail Geoff or tweet @geofflemonsport
18th over: India 125-4 (Deepti 14) OH MY GOSH indeed! Sciver has been so tidy today, done the job, but she bowls on a good length and Ghosh cleans it out over midwicket for six! Powerful strike, clean as you like. Ebony Rainford-Brent is down there in the crowd for the TV broadcaster and she leaps out of the way rather than rushing in to take the catch like most former players. That’s humility. Ghosh follows up with a looping outside edge towards point that Dunkley nearly snares running around from cover, but no dice. Then with the last ball of her spell, Sciver has the ball driven back at her, head high, and takes the catch as calmly as anything.
17th over: India 116-3 (Deepti 12, Ghosh 1) Ecclestone slams on the brakes. A couple of singles, Deepti almost edging to backward point, and then Ghosh can’t beat the field. Two from the over!
Richa Ghosh always reminds me of this song by Jamie XX, which also happens to have one of the most fascinating clips you’ll see. Filmed in a replica town in China.
16th over: India 114-3 (Deepti 11, Ghosh 0) Deepti Sharma is joined by Richa Ghosh. Glenn comes back to close out her over well, only two more runs as Deepti flicks through midwicket.
Glenn to bowl, and Harmanpreet bails out of a charge after Glenn pulls back the length. But gets down low to the next ball and thrashes the sweep shot between the leg-side boundary riders. Comes down the track next ball and bashes six over long on. Then tries again over extra cover, beautifully struck, but Brunt comes around from long off and manages to hold the tumbling catch. Harmanpreet upped the pace when needed, and ends with 31 from 25 balls.
15th over: India 102-2 (Harmanpreet 21, Deepti 9) Sciver returns, and again manages to tighten the screws. Harmanpreet is trying to take her on but takes three balls to get a run. Deepti goes down the ground and they come back for the second, Harmanpreet diving into her ground at the far end and making it, needing some quick physio attention on a scraped arm. Five from the over, five overs to go.
14th over: India 97-2 (Harmanpreet 19, Deepti 6) Close call for Deepti Sharma! Tries to work to the leg side, big leading edge that goes high in the air, and Heather Knight running from mid on towards midwicket can’t get enough ground speed to arrive in time. Harmanpreet mistimes her own shot, less dramatically, to the leg side for another run. To end the over she finally gets onto a ball from Davies, smoking it through cover in the air. Brunt dives across but may only have got a fingertip to that ball. She sits down and punches the ground in frustration at not having been able to take the catch, though. Dunkley saves on the rope, then her throw back to the non-striker’s end isn’t taken cleanly and the batters get another run, three in all from the shot.
13th over: India 91-2 (Harmanpreet 15, Deepti 4) Harmanpreet sweeps Glenn and takes a single that doesn’t get very far from the bat. Deepti gets her sweep more cleanly to deep backward square, but saved. There’s no deep point for Harmanpreet though, no sweeper out there, and when Glenn drops short and wide there is only one likely destination for that ball. Harmanpreet cuts it sweetly to the fence.
12th over: India 83-2 (Harmanpreet 9, Deepti 2) More dots, dragging down the rate. Deepti Sharma drives back to the bowler, drives straight to cover, can’t get a single until the third ball. Harmanpreet tries the big sweep and underedges straight to short fine, no run. Alright then, she says, enough messing about. Charges, smashes Villiers over wide long on for six! Lovely shot too, that looked very good. And she shouts an affirmation to herself as the ball leaves the bat. Feeling the pressure of not scoring many runs lately, not hitting the ball the way that she enjoys. But that was a glimpse of Harmanpreet Kaur’s best.
11th over: India 75-2 (Harmanpreet 2, Deepti 1) This over in itself becomes a microcosm of the problem. Brunt’s one over earlier today was savaged. The boldness of Verma’s start was special. Brunt was dragged from the attack. Now Brunt is brought back for a second over. And Harmanpreet plays a forward defensive before glancing a single. Deepti blocks one, misses a couple, pushes a run to cover. The tactical thing to do would be to keep the pressure on the bowler who can be pressured. Instead India have let Brunt ease back into the game.
10th over: India 73-2 (Harmanpreet 1, Deepti 0) Now then. Does India throw away that blazing start? It has been the way this team has played for a while. Deepti Sharma comes out to join Harmanpreet, and there’s only one run from the over.
Two in quick succession. Verma can’t capitalise on her audacious start. Villiers comes on to bowl off-breaks. First ball, innocuous enough, speared in at leg stump, and Verma wants all of it. Aims a huge drive, doesn’t hit it right, and Sciver down at long on has time to run all the way around almost to midwicket in the deep and hold the catch as it comes down. Good effort in the field.
9th over: India 72-1 (Verma 48, Harmanpreet 0) Davies follows the wicket with a wide that Jones can’t get across to, enabling India to pinch an extra extra. (Read all about it.) Harmanpreet Kaur has sent herself in after this fast start, rather than Harleen Deol who was listed at No3.
Davies goes around the wicket to the left-handed Mandhana, stays over the wicket to Verman. The batters trade singles, although one comes from a Verma wind-up that zooms out to the deep midwicket sweeper. Then from the fifth ball of the over Mandhana tries to repeat that lofted off-drive. Doesn’t strike it cleanly, it hangs in the air and comes down in the hands of cover on the edge of the circle, rather than clearing Mady Villiers to the boundary.
8th over: India 66-0 (Mandhana 18, Verma 46) Sarah Glenn, the leg-spinner, on to bowl. She’s off line with her second ball, down the leg side and Verma catches up and glances four. Cuts a wider ball but can’t time it, hard into the ground. Glenn gives it more air than Evel Knievel but Verma waits for it and drives soberly along the ground for one. It’s Mandhana who launches the next ball over the Grand Canyon, a crossover skip down the track and a clean off-drive that hits the boundary cushion down the ground on the full. Six runs.
7th over: India 54-0 (Mandhana 11, Verma 41) Bowling change, and here’s Freya Davies, the upright seam bowler with her galloping dressage approach and her bouncing equine hair. Mandhana pushes away a single behind point, raising the 50 partnership in 6.1 overs. Happy days. Verma has chilled out a bit and drives a single through mid on. Mandhana steps into an on-drive of her own, just past the bowler, one run. Brunt, looking grumpy, hurls the ball at the stumps. Verma brings out that bottom-hand strength again, clouting down to long-on on the bounce. Just five from the over.
6th over: India 49-0 (Mandhana 9, Verma 39) Ecclestone is back and she drops Shafali Verma! Again the Indian whirlwind is trying to flat-bat down the ground having given herself room. She belts it right back at the bowler, just to Ecclestone’s left at ribcage height. Both hands to it, but it bursts through. Verma misses a couple, finds the field, and Ecclestone gets through a scoreless over. So after scoring 20 from five balls, Verma has since scored 1 from 11 balls.
5th over: India 49-0 (Mandhana 9, Verma 39) Sciver comes back, and her lack of pace helps restore order to proceedings. Again there’s a Mandhana single first ball, but this time Verma can’t time a shot, hitting the field, hitting a couple a bit airborne. Is Sciver bowling well, or is Verma just increasing the mind games with Brunt? “Five balls from you, five fours. Five balls from your partner, one single.” It could be a very intricate psych-out.
4th over: India 47-0 (Mandhana 8, Verma 38) Her mood is up having faced the spinner, and now Shafali Verma wants to take down Brunt. Has this tendency to back away to leg a little to give herself room, and to start the over she drags a shorter ball over midwicket for four. Second ball, even more of a heave and it goes dead straight down the ground for another. Third ball, backing away again, Brunt pushes it wider to try to deny Verma the leg side. So Verma reaches out and times it to perfection through backward point!
By god, she’s good. At 17 years old, if you haven’t heard that a thousand times already.
3rd over: India 26-0 (Mandhana 7, Verma 18) Sophie Ecclestone comes on with her left-arm orthodox spin. She often bowls early in matches with the field up, but it’ll still be a method of tempting Verma, who likes to hit spin. And she does exactly that! First ball, gets down low and flogs a slog-sweep over midwicket, bouncing away for four. She has her own way of playing that shot, coming into it with her bat almost vertical before it becomes horizontal, and then a flick of the wrists as well that emphasises her action of fetching the ball from whatever line it happens to be on, before sending it in the same direction each time. Two balls later, she goes again, for six this time! Even better purchase on the same shot and sends it into the seats.
2nd over: India 15-0 (Mandhana 7, Verma 8) Katherine Brunt has the new ball from the other end, and charges in as she’s done since 2005. (Or 2004 in Tests, but you get my drift.) Both Indian batters use her pace cleverly though, reaching out and steering fine through deep third for four. Mandhana does it first, then when Verma gets her chance she utterly loves it, a beaming smile on her face after she reaches wide and gets more of a nick than she intended, but gets the four she wanted. She has had quite the battle with Brunt through this whole series across formats, and it’s been great viewing.
1st over: India 4-0 (Mandhana 2, Verma 2) Nat Sciver is taking the new ball in the absence of Anya Shrubsole, an all-round seamer doing the job in place of England’s new-ball swing specialist. She bowls a tidy line, and all four singles in the over are run down to deep third.
India
Shafali Verma
Smriti Mandhana
Harleen Deol
Harmanpreet Kaur *
Deepti Sharma
Richa Ghosh +
Sneh Rana
Arundhati Reddy
Shikha Pandey
Radha Yadav
Poonam Yadav
England
Tammy Beaumont
Danni Wyatt
Natalie Sciver
Heather Knight *
Amy Jones +
Sophia Dunkley
Katherine Brunt
Sophie Ecclestone
Sarah Glenn
Mady Villiers
Freya Davies
Choosing to chase, as per conventional wisdom in T20 cricket, is no surprise. We’re watching this match from Hove, where the forecast says there might be some rain this evening but it should be after we’ve got the match finished. Here’s hoping.
Here is that catch, in multiple slow-motion replays, if you want to get your head around the physics. It’s a little bit Simone Biles in that respect.
CATCH OF THE YEAR by HARLEEN DEOL.
WHAT AN EFFORT pic.twitter.com/23a3C8rUMQ
Ahoy, sailors. All aboard, let’s chart a course for Cricket Island.
Come to think of it, Cricket Island could probably be Sri Lanka. Or Australia. Or New Zealand, or the assorted lands of the Caribbean? (Cricket Islands?) Or, I suppose, Britain, which if I recall correctly is not the same as Great Britain, or the United Kingdom, or England, or the British Isles. But one of the aforementioned is an island, and others are multiple islands. Look, I think we’ve made this more complicated than it needs to be. Cricket Island is a mental island, a state of mind, a place we drift off to when we close our eyes. And we’re going there today to watch England play India, which is definitely not an island, but does contain some islands.
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