Two wickets in the 14th over triggered a collapse as India Women kept the T20I series alive with an 8-run win against England. The series is now level 1-1. England lead 8-6 on points, which means India can still level the series if they win at Chelmsford.
England Women the chase up to that stage thanks to Tammy Beaumont’s fifty, but they lost six wickets for 31 runs to fall short of the target of 149.
Heather Knight won the toss and decided to field. Both teams went with unchanged XIs. India started steadily, changing gear in the fourth over as Shafali Verma took her revenge. Katherine Brunt had dismissing her for a duck in the first T20I. Verma now hit five consecutive boundaries off Brunt, displaying the full range of her shots.
This gave India the upper hand, and the openers took them to fifty in the seventh over. They then fell in consecutive overs, Smriti Mandhana for 20, and Verma for 49, to Freya Davis and Mady Villiers respectively.
England had a chance to come back, but Harmanpreet Kaur and Deepti Sharma added 40 for the third wicket to keep the run flow going. Kaur scored 31 in 25 balls with two fours and two sixes; and once Kaur departed, Sharma added key runs with Richa Ghosh and Sneh Rana. Sharma remained not out for 24 in 26 balls, and the final total was 148/4.
England started briskly in their chase before losing Danni Wyatt and Nat Sciver in the second and third overs. However, Beaumont maintained her good form and built a partnership with Knight. The duo took England to 106 as Beaumont reached her 50 off just 39 balls. The Indian bowling was slightly wayward at this stage: they bowled 3 No-balls and 11 wide balls.
Things changed for India in the 14th over, bowled by Sharma. Beaumont survived an LBW call. India reviewed, and the umpire’s call went in England’s favour. Two balls later, Beaumont was given LBW. This time DRS worked in India’s favour.
Amy Jones joined Knight. She hit the next ball straight and hard, and the ball hit the stumps after ricocheting off Sharma, who dove between Knight and the crease in a way that prevented Knight from returning. England needed 43 runs in 37 balls at this stage.
The Indian bowlers took control, and the fielding went up a notch, evoking memories of the Northampton match. But Sophia Dunkley was run out in the 16th over, while Poonam Yadav took Jones. Poonam took another wicket in the 19th over to finish with 2-17 from her four overs.
By this time England were well behind and they lost another wicket in the 20th over as Villiers was run out.
England Women finally finished on 140/8 as Sharma was named Player of the Match. The teams will now move to Chelmsford to play the all-important third T20I, which will be the series decider.
Brief scores: India Women 148/4 in 20 overs (Shafali Verma 48; Mady Villiers 1-9) beat England Women 140/8 in 20 overs (Tammy Beaumont 59; Poonam Yadav 2-17) by 8 runs. Player of the Match: Deepti Sharma.