Key events
WICKET! Rodrigues b Bell 29 (India 100-4)
Flummoxed by the slower ball, an advancing Rodrigues can only turn around to confirm her miserable fate. A delighted Bell punches the air.
10th over: India 94-3 (Rodrigues 24, Harmanpreet 16) Harmanpreet chomps into a short ball from Smith, thrashing it square past two diving England fielders, then dispatches the last offering before drinks for another four through point.
9th over: India 82-3 (Rodrigues 23, Harmanpreet 5) England can’t keep Rodrigues still in the crease, and her ceaseless movements gives her options. She ramps Gibson for four, then swots a short ball past a diving Smith for another.
Harmanpreet today overtakes Susie Bates as the most capped player in women’s cricket – with 368 games for India under her belt.
8th over: India 71-3 (Rodrigues 14, Harmanpreet 3) Harmanpreet and Rodrigues make for a stylish duo at the crease. A fistful of singles from Eclestone’s second over, then Rodrigues shimmies a wider final ball with dancing wrists to the backward point boundary.
7th over: India 63-3 (Rodrigues 8, Harmanpreet 1) Dani Gibson stops the flow of boundaries, and the run out of Bhatia could be crucial.
WICKET! Bhatia run out (Ecclestone) 32 (India 60-3)
Ecclestone with her left hand, a fishtail plait running down her back, runs out the lumbering Bhatia with a throw to the non-striker’s end . A vital wicket for England, Bhatia was in the zone
6th over: India 57-2 (Bhatia 32, Rodrigues 3) Bhatia signs off from the power play with three more boundaries, this time off Dean. An off-balanced sweep, a here-we-go up and over, and finally hammering her down the ground like a rogue nail
5th over: India 45-2 (Bhatia 20, Rodrigues 3) Bhatia, dealing mostly in boundaries this evening, slog-sweeps Ecclestone to pick up four. Four singles on top keeps the scoring rate perky.
Hello Kevin Wilson! “England probably decided a while back not to roll the dice before a home World Cup but they should probably move on from DWH, Knight, NSB and Jones after this tournament. The side has suffered from moving too many batters around in the past. Time to bring new players in, in fixed positions. I’m not sure I see a role for Gibson. England have plenty of batters who can bowl. Wong has been out of sorts for a while. Invest in Gaur instead.”
4th over: India 37-2 (Bhatia 9, Rodrigues 1) Dean makes the breakthrough in her first over – India are scoring quickly, but losing wickets.
WICKET! Mandhana lbw Dean 8 (India 36-2)
The dog changes the channel by leaping off the sofa with one paw on the controller, when I put it back on, India have appealed an lbw decision. Madhana had gone to sweep, it looks pretty out – even Mandhana looks like she thinks it is out – and out it is.
3rd over: India 31-1 (Mandhana 8, Bhatia 9) Two wides and two fours from Bell’s second over as she gets some punishment from Bhatia, through point and deep third.
WICKET! Verma c Dean b Smith 11 (India 19-1)
Verma is eager for more runs but cramped for room, gets an outside edge ball which holds up in the wind and Charlie Dean collects at point. Clever bowling
2nd over: India 19-1 (Mandhana 7, Bhatia 0) Linsey Smith in sunglasses from the other end. Mandhana clips her off her toes, over the leaping Bell at midwicket for four. Then Verma joins in hawking her through backward square for four more. But then the wicket!
1st over: India 10-0 (Mandhana 2, Verma 7) Lauren Bell directs the field at the top of her mark. The wind ruffles her shirt, the sun suddenly out and glinting on her bun as the church of St James looks on. Mandhana hoiks Bell up and just over mid on, but Verma earns the style points, delicately angling the ball down to the rope. A handful of singles and a wide.
“There’s a good crowd building,” says Raf. “I’m told they’re expecting at least 5,000 people which will be near capacity.”
Selection talk
Sky’s crew talk England selection for the World Cup – they put Capsey/Dunkley/Knight//Gibson/Wong/Corteen-Coleman and Filer up for discussion.
Charlie Dagnall. “I think Capsey accesses more areas of the field, can manipulate the surface a bit more, better against pace and spin, Dunkley is a little bit more one dimensional. Kate Cross agrees, “Capsey can hit areas of the ground where it needs to go, Dunkley doesn’t have that many more options than hitting over the top.”
Tash Farrant “Dunkley and Wyatt Hodge run really well together,I’d back her, tell her she needs to get off to a fast start. She does look quite tentative at the moment though.” She would pick Capsey and Dunkley and leave Knight out, also Capsey and Dunkley are better in the field and running quick singles.
Cross goes for Knight because you need experienced players, despite her lack of strike rate. “There is no space for anchors any more in the women’s game.”
Dagnall says he’d go for Knight as she’s a better player with NSB in the side.
Farrant says Edwards needs to be more flexible with the batting order.
Dunkley goes for Wong “a difference maker, a big game player.”
Farrant would pick Dani Gibson as England need to stack the batting. As would Cross who says Gibson is more of the future of England cricket than Wong.
And here comes Sue Redfern and the teams.
I’ve just disturbed Raf mid-forkful of white chocolate cheesecake in the Taunton media centre.
“We’ve watched two brilliant warm-up acts – we had drummers earlier and now we’ve got a group of dancers with Indian flags. Overcast and windy at the moment, but it’s been dry all afternoon.”
India XI
India make one change, seamer Kranti Gaud comes in for spinner Shreyanka Patil.
India: Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Jemimah Rodrigues (wk), Richa Ghosh, Deepti Sharma, Arundhati Reddy, Kranti Gaud, Sree Charani, Nandni Sharma.
England XI
No changes from Bristol.
England: Sophia Dunkley, Danni Wyatt-Hodge, Amy Jones (wk), Alice Capsey, Heather Knight, Freya Kemp, Danielle Gibson, Charlie Dean (c), Sophie Ecclestone, Linsey Smith, Lauren Bell.
England win the toss and bowl!
It’s blowy out there. Charlie Dean looks pleased. “The win at Bristol was brilliant for us, a confidence builder, hopefully we can do more of the same today.” England play the same team.
Preamble
Roll up, roll up for the final game in this T20 World Cup warm-up series. Happily for the crowd, it’s a decider with meaning, England and India both have a point in the purse – and the winner will take the momentum with them into the tournament proper. They’ll toss the coin at 6pm BST, with play starting half an hour later. Pull up a chair and join us!
