Smriti Mandhana smashes 112 runs; India defeats England by 97 runs

It was stand-in skipper Smriti Mandhana’s day at Trent Bridge on Saturday. She could do nothing wrong after India were put in to bat in the first T20I here at Trent Bridge. Smriti, captaining the side in place of Harmanpreet Kaur, who was rested as she had still not recovered from a blow she received on her head in the warm-up game a few days earlier, led from the front by scoring her maiden T20I century which helped India post a massive 210-5 in their 20 overs. Thereafter, she marshalled the resources excellently as England collapsed for 113 in 14.5 overs. India registered a memorable 97-run win in their 200th T20I game.

If India’s batting was par excellence, their bowling was equally good, with the spin quartet of Deepti Sharma, Radha Yadav, Sneh Rana and debutant Shree Charani not only keeping the famed England batting in check but also getting wickets regularly. The home team lost three in the Powerplay and were five down for 78 by the half-way mark. From then on, they tried to make a match of it, but the task proved too much for them.  

England skipper Nat Sciver-Blunt’s decision to let India bat first on the placid track backfired as there was a spate of batting milestones during India’s innings. Smriti (112 off 62 balls with 15 fours and three sixes) recorded the highest score by an Indian woman in T20Is, and only the second T20I century by an Indian, after Harmanpreet Kaur’s 103 vs New Zealand in Providence (West Indies) in 2018. The latter had got to her hundred in only 49 balls, while Smriti missed out on bettering it by a mere three balls, with her century coming off 51 deliveries. 

This was India’s second-highest score in T20I, just behind the 217-4 they posted against West Indies at the DY Patel ground in Navi Mumbai last December.

Brief scores
India 210-5 in 20 overs (S Mandhana 112, H Deol 43; L Bell 3-27, E Arlott 1-38) beat England 113 all out in 14.5 overs (N Sciver-Brunt 66; S Charani 4-12, R Yadav 2-15, D Sharma 2-32) by 97 runs

This article first appeared on Mid Day