50 overs England 227 for 7 (Davidson-Richards 50*, Wyatt 43, Deepti 2-33) vs India
England were hardly able to build momentum in the innings and lost wickets whenever they tried to string a partnership. All of India’s bowlers except Pooja Vastrakar, who bowled just two overs, picked up at least a wicket each to reduce England to 94 for 5 and then 128 for 6 before Davidson-Richards stitched two useful stands worth 99 runs for the seventh and eighth wickets with Sophie Ecclestone and Charlie Dean respectively to give them a decent score to defend.
Sophia Dunkley, who scored heavily against India in the T20Is, and debutant Alice Capsey steered the hosts through a stable period, with a scoring rate of 3.50 an over. Dunkley looked more patient and Capsey more solid but a flurry of bowling changes and a spin squeeze from both ends ended the 43-run stand when Harmanpreet Kaur took a one-handed catch at short midwicket.
Wyatt then led the innings and just when it looked like she and Dunkley were rebuilding steadily again, Wyatt saw two of her team-mates fall in three overs. Dunkley first handed a straightforward catch to cover when Harleen Deol cleverly followed two legbreaks with a full offbreak just before the halfway mark. Then, a ball that kept really low from Rajeshwari Gayakwad deflected off Amy Jones’ back foot as she missed a pull, and England were in trouble at 94 for 5.
Wyatt and Davidson-Richards – the last recognised batting pair – pushed the run rate closer to four an over by collecting boundaries off loose deliveries from Meghna, Rana and Deol. But Wyatt too fell to a soft dismissal when she missed a sweep off Deepti to lose her stumps. England could have been six down in the same over had Deepti hung on to a low return chance from Ecclestone while diving to her right in the wicket maiden.
Ecclestone and Davidson-Richards revived England from 128 for 6 with a much-needed fifty stand that gave them hopes of crossing 200. Ecclestone scored briskly off the spinners once she got off the mark with a swept four and then swept two more fours off Rana in a 11-run over to push the scoring rate past four in the 40th over, while Davidson-Richards rotated the strike regularly by coming down the pitch. But another delivery kept low, this time from Deepti, and struck Ecclestone right in front on the back foot for 31 off 33, as soon as the fifty stand came up.
Goswami had finished her 10 overs by then for 1 for 20 with two maidens which made the hosts target Meghna and Deepti at the end. Dean was both late and deft as she opened the face of the bat on the off side against the quicks for her two fours and also got a life when Goswami nearly hung on to a low chance diving forward from short fine leg in the 48th over. Davidson-Richards then went after Deepti in the penultimate over and Meghna in the last to help them collect 45 runs in the last six overs.