IND-A vs ENG-A: In a thrilling match, England A defeated India A by 5 wickets, series tied at 1-1… now the battle for the final.

Northampton: Thanks to the captaincy innings of captain Kira Chathli (53 runs) and the stormy batting of Bess Heath (40 runs), England A women’s team defeated India A by 5 wickets in the second T20 match. With this victory at the County Ground in Northampton, host England has leveled the 3-match T20 series 1-1. Now the third and deciding (final) match of the series will be played on Thursday in Chelmsford.

England chased the target of 173 runs easily

England A had a great start to chase the strong target of 173 runs set by India A. Captain Kira Chathali and Grace Scrivens (39 runs) made a partnership of only 61 runs for the second wicket. Thanks to this pair, England scored 68 runs for 1 wicket in the powerplay. After Scrivens was out, Bess Heath took over. Heath made the match one-sided by playing an aggressive innings of unbeaten 40 runs on just 23 balls and took his team across the threshold of victory.

Vrinda Dinesh’s aggressive innings of 79 runs went in vain

Earlier, India A team, which came to bat first after losing the toss, had scored a challenging score of 172 runs after losing 4 wickets in the stipulated overs.

Opener Diya Yadav had made her intentions clear by hitting three brilliant fours in the very first over, but she could not play a big innings. After this Vrinda Dinesh played shots all around the field. He made quick half-century partnerships with Purvaja Verlekar and captain Anushka Sharma. Vrinda played an excellent inning of 79 runs, which included many skyscraper sixes and fours. Rhianna McDonald-Gay was the most economical and successful bowler for England A, taking 2 important wickets for just 10 runs in 4 overs and putting a break on the Indian run rate.

Bad fielding and loose bowling proved costly

The Indian team performed well in batting, but the same rhythm was not visible in bowling and fielding. England’s batsmen easily scored runs against the Indian spinners and fast bowlers by playing cuts, drives and sweep shots. However, among the Indian bowlers, Vaishnavi Sharma, Simran Dil Bahadur, Shabnam Shakeel and Meenu Mani took wickets, but they failed to stop the pace of runs.

Now both the teams have their eyes set on the last and decisive match to be held in Chelmsford, where the trophy of the series will be decided.

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