England finally got some points on the board in their World Cup defence, bowling India out for 134 in 36.2 overs – their lowest World Cup total since 2009 – before a see-saw chase got them over the line with four wickets and 112 balls to spare in Mount Mauganui.
The off-spinner Charlie Dean, playing in only her second World Cup match, finished with 4 for 23, while Anya Shrubsole (2 for 20) became the sixth Englishwoman to reach the milestone of 100 wickets in one-day internationals when she bowled Yastika Bhatia in the fourth over of the day.
Heather Knight then returned to form with an unbeaten half-century, keeping her head while wickets fell at the other end, until Sophie Ecclestone finally sealed the deal in the 32nd over with a four slashed over midwicket.
The win means England have kept their slender hopes of qualifying for the semi-finals alive, though they remain reliant on other results going their way to avoid a premature exit.
“It’s been a tricky tour,” Shrubsole said. “It’s been a while since we’ve won. I wasn’t anywhere near where I would like to be against West Indies. It takes some honest reflections and some honest conversations with coaches. We haven’t shied away from the fact that we’ve been really poor in the field in the first three games and it’s potentially cost us some wins. It was really nice to put some of that right today and hopefully it’s a step in the right direction for us moving forward.
“We’ll celebrate the win and then it’s about getting to Auckland and turning our attention to the New Zealand game.”
After winning the toss, England had chosen to chase, knowing they needed to do as much as possible to bump up their net run rate in case of a multi-way scrap for a semi-final position. But despite the low target they were reduced to four for two after Sneh Rana took a diving screamer at slip to see off Danni Wyatt and Jhulan Goswami produced a beautiful inswinger, trapping Tammy Beaumont lbw after Mithali Raj successfully referred the decision upstairs.
Nat Sciver was lucky not to be Goswami’s second victim: she survived a ball in the fifth over that burst through her and rolled into the stumps, but did not dislodge the bails. The seamer got her revenge in the 17th, pouching Sciver’s leading edge at mid-on, but Sciver’s run-a-ball 45 had by then steadied the ship. Sophia Dunkley (17) and Katherine Brunt were dismissed within three balls of each other by Meghna Singh with seven runs needed, but Knight and Ecclestone finished the job.
Whatever the coach, Lisa Keightley, said to England in training on Tuesday appeared to have worked: for the first time in the tournament England went an entire innings without shelling a catch. Dunkley set the tone with a good, low snaffle at cover to see off Mithali Raj, before Kate Cross ran out Deepti Sharma with a direct hit from mid-off as India sunk to 28 for three in the opening eight overs. A second direct hit, from Sciver in the 34th over, gathering the ball at midwicket before swiftly turning to throw down the stumps at the non-striker’s end, did for Richa Ghosh.
But it was Dean, introduced in the 17th over, who inflicted the most damage. After being omitted from England’s XI in the opening two matches of the tournament, she came good, relying on an attacking line outside off-stump and copious drift. She sent down a double-wicket maiden, taking the outside edges of Harmanpreet Kaur and Sneh Rana, both caught behind. Two balls after Pooja Vastrakar used DRS to overturn an lbw decision, Dean rapped her on the pads again; this time, the replay showed it had hit her in line.
Bowling in tandem with Ecclestone, Dean dried up India’s run-scoring; it was frustration that eventually dislodged the stubborn Smriti Mandhana, trapped lbw for 35 by Ecclestone after missing a sweep. It was downhill from there and Dean went on to wrap things up in the 37th over, bowling Meghna Singh. It was a miserable display with the bat from India, and a somewhat surprising one, given they were fresh from a 155-run thrashing of West Indies on Saturday.
“We’ve shown a lot of fight as a team to come back from a few disappointing games and show what we can do,” Dean said, dedicating her player of the match award to her parents. “I was trying to keep it simple, bowl as tight to the stumps as I could do, and that worked well for me.”
