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Harmanpreet century, Goud six-for seal 2-1 series win for India
Harmanpreet Kaur’s century and Kranti Goud’s six-wicket haul handed India a 13-run victory over England and a 2-1 ODI series win in a high-scoring tour finale.
Harmanpreet’s 84-ball 102 asked England to post what would have been a world record run-chase of 319 in their last competitive match before the World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.
Despite a fighting 162-run stand between third-wicket pair NatSciver-Btunt and Emma Lamb, which rescued England from 8 for 2 after Goud had struck twice inside the first three overs of their pursuit, England were found wanting once both those batters were gone.
Goud finished with 6 for 52 to be the pick of India’s bowlers, who met with some resistance at Chester-le-Street which made for a margin of defeat that flattered the hosts.
It wasn’t until the 31st over that India struck again, via Shree Charani’s removal of Lamb for 68 and, once Deepti Sharma had Sciver-Brunt caught behind two runs shy of a century, India seized back control.
Unlike England, India will have three more ODIs before their home tournament when they host reigning champions Australia between September 14-20 with the World Cup starting 10 days after that series concludes.
Although it was a closer-run game than initially promised, India looked a class above England through their batting innings.
Harmanpreet, who became the third Indian player to pass 4000 runs in women’s ODIs, arrested a lean run of form by passing fifty for the first time in 13 innings in the format. Since scoring 54 in the 50-over warm-up match against an ECB Development XI at the start of the tour, her best score in either of the white-ball series against England had been 26 in the fourth T20I.
She was well supported by fifty from Jemmimah Rodrigues, with whom she shared a 110-run stand for the fourth wicket, while Smriti Mandhana and Harleen Deol added 45 runs apiece and Richa Ghosh contributed an excellent 18-ball cameo to go unbeaten on 38.
Rodrigues took a liking to offspinner Charlie Dean, helping herself to three fours twice from consecutive overs accessing all areas of the ground.
Harmanpreet was also dealing largely in boundaries, clipping Linsey Smith over mid-off and sweeping over square leg.
Another four over square leg took her past 90 and, after Rodrigues gloved an attempted pull off Lauren Filer to Amy Jones behind the stumps moments after brining up her fifty, Harmanpreet raised her seventh ODI century with a push through mid-off.
England missed the chance to remove Hamanpreet on 22 with the score 132 for 2 when Filer struck the pad but the home side failed to review with replays suggesting she would have been out. She eventually fell chipping a drive to Sciver-Brunt, who took a sharp diving catch at cover.
After revealing in a pre-match interview that she considered quitting cricket in the aftermath of the off-field drama surrounding England’s T20 World Cup and Ashes failures, Sophie Ecclestone was by far England’s most economical bowler with 1 for 28 from 10 overs. But her counterparts all paid heavily for a solitary wicket each as India’s batters dominated, with 120 runs coming off the last 10 overs.
England’s openers both fell cheaply to Goud the 21-year-old right-arm seamer playing her fifth match for her country. She bowled Tammy Beaumont with a beauty of an in-ducker that slid between bat and pad and had Deepti to thank for removing Jones with a spectacular one-handed catch leaping to her right at short third.
England were 22 for 2 at the end of the powerplay but thereafter Sciver-Brunt and Lamb set about rebuilding the innings with more gusto.
Lamb survived a caught-and-bowled chance to Charani on 58 but Charani made amends a short time later, bowling Lamb on the sweep to put England back under pressure.
No sooner had Sciver-Brunt beaten Sneh Rana’s dive at fine leg for her 11th four of the innings, than Deepti struck to remove the biggest danger.
Sciver-Brunt knew she was gone, as did Deepti, who vigorously called for the DRS without consulting her captain when umpire Jacqueline Williams remained unmoved by her appeal for caught behind. Harmanpreet too signalled for a review as Sciver-Brunt began making her way back to the changeroom, UltraEdge confirming the ball had come off her glove as Ghosh dived, juggled and gathered down the leg side.
Sophia Dunkley was run out in a mix-up with Alice Davidson-Richards, who turned her back as her partner chanced Goud’s arm at point only to see Ghosh break the stumps with Dunkley a long way from home.
Rodrigues took two excellent catches in the deep to remove Dean and Ecclestone before Goud dismissed Davidson-Richards and Filer with consecutive balls to seal her five-for then claimed a bonus sixth when she had Lauren Bell caught by Harmanpreet as England were bowled out with one ball remaining.
Brief scores:
India Women 318 for 5 in 50 overs (Smriti Mandhana 45, Harlene Deol 45, Harmanpreet Kaur 102, Jemmimah Rodrigues 50, Richa Ghosh 38*; Sophie Ecclestone 1-28) beat England Women 305 in 49.5 overs (Nat Sciver-Brunt 98, Emma Lamb 68, Alice Davidson Richards 44; Kranti Goud 6-52, Shree Charani 2-68) by 13 runs
[Cricinfo]
A Sri Lankan innings that never really got going eventually parked itself at middling total of 219, as they were bowled out in 49.3 overs in the second ODI in Colombo. It’s a total England will fancy themselves to chase down as they look to level this three-match series.
Sri Lanka’s innings was headlined by Charith Asalanka’s 45 off 64 and Dhananjaya de Silva’s 40 off 59, but at strike rates of 67.79 and 70.31 it tells you all you need to know about how well England kept a lid on the innings.
For the visitors the wickets were spread out, with Adil Rashid, Jamie Overton and Joe Root picking up two apiece, the latter with the final two balls of the innings. There were also wickets for Liam Dawson, Rehan Ahmed and the returning Will Jacks.
And much like in the first ODI, England’s varied attack – no less than eight options were used across the innings – sought to give little away. “Keeping the stumps in play,” was Harry Brook’s refrain, speaking after losing the toss, and on an uber-dry surface with boundaries square and behind mostly protected, the onus was on the Lankan batters to use their feet in order to access the boundaries at extra cover and deep midwicket.
That sort of strokeplay however proved detrimental to the Lankan cause with four of their top five falling in their attempts to access the boundaries in front of square. Kamil Mishara sought to bring some impetus to the innings after a miserly early burst from the England seamers, but his attempted lashing cover drive could not clear Ben Duckett in the circle, who held on at the second attempt.
Pathum Nissanka, who had patiently waded through the opening powerplay when the scoring rate sat below four an over, then sought to capitalise on his added time in the middle, but only managed to loft an inside-out drive to long-off.
Later on in the innings Dhananjaya whacked one low to Root at midwicket, before the set Asalanka found deep midwicket with a slog sweep.
And arguably Sri Lanka’s best batter at accessing those regions, Kusal Mendis, ran himself out for a ground-out 26, when he cut one straight to point and absentmindedly set off for the single. The throw from the fit-again Jacks was pinpoint and found Mendis easily short as he sought in vain to fling himself back to safety.
There were promising stands between, notably a 42-run effort between Nissanka and Mendis and 66 between Dhananjaya and Asalanka, but none of the batters involved were able to push on and up the rate of scoring over any concerted period of time.
Pavan Rathnayake’s 29 off 34 had also shown promise, but he fell foul looking to clear the straight boundary as he sliced one to long-off, and in the process silenced an energetic Khettarama crowd.
The frustrating nature of Sri Lanka’s innings was illustrated by the fact that five batters scored at least 25 and faced at least 30 deliveries, but the highest score remained Asalanka’s 45.
England, to their credit, stuck to and executed their plans well. The use of eight bowlers – six of them spinners – meant Sri Lanka’s batters were ever really able to get a measure of any one bowler. And while the lengths were consistent, the pace of the deliveries was varied. It meant that even when a set batter such as Nissanka sought to take on the attack, Rashid was able to successfully deceive him in the flight.
Dunith Wellalage once more looked enterprising during a late cameo, but despite finding two boundaries in his brief stay, his 20 off 19 was far less damaging to England’s cause than had been in the first ODI.
England bowled 40.3 overs of spin across their innings, breaking their previous record of 36. That came in Sharjah in 1984-85, when Norman Gifford captained England at the age of 44, and took four wickets. The team wore black armbands during the first ODI after his death last week.
Brief scores:
Sri Lanka 219 in 49.3 overs (Charith Asalanka 45, Dhananjaya De Silva 40; Joe Root 2-12, Jamie Overton 2-21, Adil Rashid 2-34) vs England
(Cricinfo)
(Cricbuzz)
At least seven people have died and more than 80 others are missing after a landslide hit Indonesia’s West Java province, officials said.
The landslide occurred in the West Bandung region, south-east of the capital Jakarta, following days of intense rainfall.
More than thirty homes were destroyed after “landslide material buried residential areas, causing fatalities and affecting local residents”, Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency said in a statement.
Flooding, landslide and extreme weather alerts have also been issued for the broader region.
The landslide hit the village of Pasirlangu around 02:30AM on Saturday [24] (19:30 GMT).
Two dozen people were evacuated safely from the affected region, according to Abdul Muhari, communication chief of the National Search Agency.
Images shared by local news outlets showed homes buried under mud and debris.
[BBC]
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