Edgbaston in Birmingham dished out a thriller between England and India Women. The pendulum swung from one way to another. In the end, it was the hosts, England, who held their nerve to win by 5 wickets off the final ball of the game to end the series on a high. India Women, despite losing the match, won the series 3-2. The Women in Blue, India, will be happy as a whole to win the T20 series, but will look at areas where they can improve going forward. We will list out three reasons why India lost last night’s close game against England.
Inability to separate the opening pair hurts IndiaÂ
India had a decent score to defend as 167 was a par score in Edgbaston. But for that, they needed to take early wickets and put pressure on England. But that unfortunately didn’t happen as England, much like the third match at the Oval, got off to a great start courtesy of their openers Sophia Dunkley and Danielle Wyatt-Hodge.
The duo batted well and made sure that India Women not only got the breakthrough in the powerplay but were rendered wicketless at the halfway stage as well. The duo put on 101 for the first wicket and lost their first wicket only in the 11th over when Dunkley fell for 46 off 30 balls, while Wyatt-Hodge fell for 56 off 37 balls moments later. But after scoring 101 off the required 168, the job was as good as done for England. India did well to come back in the game and force a last-ball finish, which shouldn’t have happened. But this partnership literally killed the game.
Going forward, India must look to take early wickets, especially when defending a par score. Early wickets in the powerplay put pressure on the batting side. This is something that the Women in Blue need to work on to do well in big matches at multi-nation events.
Lack of support for Shafali Verma costs India a few extra runs.Â
Put into bat first, India got off to the worst possible start, losing Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues in the powerplay. But Shafali Verma at the other end was unstoppable and played a lone than, scoring 75 off 41 balls. But she hardly got support from the other end from the other batters. Captain Harmanpreet Kaur was there and built a partnership with Shafali, but scored 15 off 18 balls. Harleen Deol failed as well. But Shafali was strong from one end.
Shafali eventually fell to Charlie Dean in the 14th over at the score of 111/5 as the other batters struggled against the spin trio of Linsey Smith, Sophie Ecclestone, and Charlie Dean. India found playing them tough, apart from Verma. Richa Ghosh’s 24 off 16 balls and Radha Yadav’s 14* took the score to 167/7 in 20 overs. But India could have got to 180 had Shafali played a little longer and, more importantly, got good support from the other end.
Going forward, India Women have to improve their batting and play as a unit rather than rely on individual players. The batters need to score an above-par score more often than not to be competitive against big teams. Their playing against spin must improve as the trio of spinners picked up 6 wickets in 12 overs for 77 runs. This also caused the downfall of India yesterday. Charlie Dean was superb in her 3/23 in 4 overs.
Inability to handle pressure in close games.Â
India Women won the series 3-2 and will be reasonably pleased with the effort they have put in the series. But if one were to analyse their performance, one would notice that the two matches they have lost have been close encounters, while the three matches that they have won were one-sided games. This is a slight area of concern going into a marquee tournament like the ODI World Cup in India later this year and the T20 World Cup in England next year.
At the Oval in London in the third game, India were in a dominant position and should have closed out the game and series there and there. They were aided by the English fielding as well, which was poor on that night. Despite all of this, they failed to chase down 172 and fell 5 runs short. This was a game that India should have won, but they did not.
Yesterday at Edgbaston, India could have got more runs with the bat but left runs out there. They came back well with the ball after the opening partnership of 101 runs and forced a real humdinger. But when the big moments came, India faltered a bit. Smriti Mandhana missed out on a run-out opportunity on the final ball of the game as England scrambled through for a win. We have seen India falter in the big moments and close matches in the past in multi-nation events. This is an area of concern, and India must address this in order to do well in the marquee events.
What Lies AheadÂ
England Women and India Women will switch formats now and clash in the ODI series. It will be a 3-match ODI series beginning on the 16th of July in Southampton. England will welcome back their skipper, Nat Sciver-Brunt back from injury. India has a more or less the same squad for the ODI series. That series will also be a humdinger, one feels.
India beat England in the 3-match ODI series 3-0 back in 2022. Can they repeat those heroics in 2025? Or will England exact revenge and claim the ODI series? All the answers to those questions will be answered from 16th July onwards.
Also Read: ENG-W vs IND-W: Shafali Verma’s Stunning Cameo Seals Historic T20I Series