Key events
13th over: India 127-2 (Bhatia 53, Rodrigues 60) Bhatia swishes unsuccessfully at a full toss from Bell that almost hits the stumps. It’s been an innings of two halves from Bhatia: 40 from the first 16 balls, 13 from the last 22.
Rodrigues has batted at the same tempo throughout and gets four more with a beautifully placed dab past short third.
12th over: India 120-2 (Bhatia 52, Rodrigues 54) Wowsers. Rodrigues moves to a 31-ball fifty, a blistering and beautiful fifty – by launching Corteen-Coleman’s first ball over long-off for six.
Corteen-Coleman responds superbly – first with a flighted delivery that takes a leading edge and loops just short of the bowler, then with a quicker ball that beats the advancing Bhatia and is fumbled down the leg side by Jones. It wasn’t an easy stumping chance, but a keeper of Jones’ quality etc etc.
On the plus side, that was such an impressive response from Corteen-Coleman: six off the first ball, two off the last five.
11th over: India 112-2 (Bhatia 51, Rodrigues 47) Rodrigues carves Gibson over the off side for four. After a single from Bhatia brings up a mildly outrageous hundred partnership from only 58 balls, Rodrigues dumps a full toss over mid-on for four more. England are wilting under the admittedly considerable pressure.
10th over: India 101-2 (Bhatia 50, Rodrigues 37) Issy Wong, whose first over went for 27, returns to the attack and shows no sign of being affected by that hideous start. Bhatia lashes four over mid-off, her first boundary since the fifth over, but it was a terrific shot rather than a poor ball. A clip for two takes Bhatia to a coruscating 31-ball fifty, her first in T20 internationals. Not bad for somebody playing their first game for India in any format since 2024.
9th over: India 92-2 (Bhatia 43, Rodrigues 35) Rodrigues reverse sweeps Ecclestone through short third for four. It went straight under Bell, who will know she should have done better.
This has been a worrying performance in the field from England, even if India have put them under pressure with some exceptional batting. Rodrigues reinforces that point by making room to thump another emphatic boundary over the off side.
8th over: India 81-2 (Bhatia 42, Rodrigues 25) A terrific over from Dean includes four successive dot balls to Bhatia. England really needed a quiet over like that, and their captain delivered it.
7th over: India 79-2 (Bhatia 41, Rodrigues 24) Dani Gibson becomes England’s sixth bowler of the innings in only the seventh over. It’s a pretty good start, with a tight wicket-to-wicket line and only six runs conceded.
6th over: India 73-2 (Bhatia 40, Rodrigues 19) Charlie Dean brings herself on for the final over of the Powerplay. Rodrigues pulls ferociously behind square for four, then gets lucky when a top-edged sweep is misjudged by Corteen-Coleman at short fine leg. She didn’t quite backpedal quickly enough and couldn’t get a hand on the ball as it dropped to the turf.
5th over: India 66-2 (Bhatia 40, Rodrigues 12) Sophie Ecclestone’s first ball is driven inside-out for four by Rodrigues, the shot of the innings so far. Bhatia sees that shot and raises it, skipping down to chip over wide long-on for six. This is awesome batting from India, Bhatia in particular, and England are under serious pressure.
This is already a career-best score for Bhatia, which is hard to believe given how well she has played.
4th over: India 51-2 (Bhatia 30, Rodrigues 7) The debutant Tilly Corteen-Coleman replaces Issy Wong. She starts a little nervously, with two unpunished full tosses, before Bhatia crashes another boundary to bring up the fifty from just 3.5 overs.
England may not have bowled well, but India’s response to losing both openers in the first half has been extraordinary.
3rd over: India 44-2 (Bhatia 25, Rodrigues 5) A low full toss from Bell is chipped jauntily over midwicket for four by Rodrigues. There’s a brief concussion check when a throw from the outfield hits Bhatia on the helmet; when play resumes, Bhatia inside-edges a jaffa from Bell for four more. Some start, this.
Wong’s first over goes for 27
2nd over: India 34-2 (Bhatia 21, Rodrigues 0) With no Linsey Smith in the side, Issy Wong shares the new ball. The result is a nightmare for Wong and England. There were three wides early in the over, two of which flew down the leg side to the boundary, and Yastika Bhatia ran with the mood to hit four fours of her own. The first two were sliced deliberately through backward point, and she followed up with drives through mid-off and cover.
1st over: India 7-2 (Bhatia 5, Rodrigues 0) That was the last ball of a pr-etty eventful first over.
WICKET! India 7-2 (Verma c Capsey b Bell 2)
Two wickets in the over! After getting off the mark with a streaky mishit over the off side, Shafali Verma drags Bell towards mid-on and is caught by the stooping Alice Capsey.
That was smart bowling from Bell, who followed Verma outside leg stump and cramped her for room.
WICKET! India 0-1 (Mandhana c Dean b Bell 0)
Smriti Mandhana drives the first ball of the match straight to Charlie Dean at extra cover! It’s a perfect start for England – and the second time in just over a week that Lauren Bell has taken a wicket with the first ball of a T20 series. There’s your statgasm for the night.
Time for the action, and action there will be from ball one
This week’s Spin is a cracking read. Raf’s book, which she’s been researching for 15 years, is published next week and looks superb.
Heather Knight, a quiet giant of English cricket in the past decade, is about to become England’s most capped women’s cricketer. Tonight’s game in Chelmsford is her 310th appearance across formats, one more than her coach Charlotte Edwards. “What a place to do it, eh?” chirps Nasser Hussain on Sky Sports.
Team news
The precocious Tilly Corteen-Coleman makes her T20I debut, one of two changes from the series decider against New Zealand on Monday. Lauren Bell also returns to the XI; Linsey Smith is rested and Maia Bouchier has been omitted. England’s batting looks light – presumably by design, to see how Freya Kemp and Dani Gibson fare under pressure in the middle order.
India make three changes from their most recent T20I, a defeat to South Africa at Benoni in April. Smriti Mandhana, Yastika Bhatia and Nandni Sharma come in for Anushka Sharma, Harmanpreet Kaur and Renuka Singh.
England Dunkley, Capsey, Jones (wk), Knight, Kemp, Gibson, Dean (c), Wong, Ecclestone, Bell, Corteen-Coleman.
India Mandhana (c), Verma, Bhatia, Rodrigues, Fulmali, Ghosh (wk), D Sharma, Reddy, Charani, N Sharma, Gaud.
England win the toss and bowl
Two stand-in captains at the toss. Smriti Mandhana calls incorrectly and Charlie Dean puts India into the bat. Smriti confirms that Harmanpreet Kaur is being rested today.
India are in a horrible group at the T20 World Cup. Only two teams qualify for the semi-finals, which makes the presence of Australia and South Africa (who beat India 4-1 in a recent T20 series) less than ideal. But there’s still every chance India can become undisputed white-ball world champions.
Aside from that defeat in South Africa, their T20 form has been excellent since they failed to get out of the group at the last World Cup two years ago. In the last 12 months they have won T20 series in both England and Australia – and nine of their squad started the ODI World Cup final win over South Africa in November.
Preamble
What do you get for beating the world champions? An even tougher test a few days later. England started their T20 World Cup build-up with a 2-1 series win over the holders New Zealand; now they face the 50-over world champions, India, in an intriguing three-match series that begins at a sweltering Chelmsford.
Most people have India as second favourites behind Australia to win the World Cup, so this is a litmus test for both teams. But while neither team will want to go into the World Cup on the back of a series defeat, winning and losing is only part of the story. Cricket is an individual game within a team sport, and there are places up for grabs in both teams.
By the time the series finishes at Taunton on Tuesday, Charlotte Edwards and Amol Muzumdar should know their XIs to start the World Cup.
Tonight’s match begins at 6.30pm.
