Smriti helps India to series win

Western Storm opener Smriti Mandhana helped India clinch the Paytm Women’s ODI series with a seven-wicket victory in the second ODI against England in Mumbai.

Batting first, England were bowled out for 161. Nat Sciver top scored with 85 and shared a record final wicket ODI partnership for England of 42 with Alex Hartley.

Despite losing an early wicket in their reply, Smriti and Punam Raut came together to take the sting out of a potentially tricky chase.

Smriti top scored for India, making 63 before being dismissed by her Western Storm teammate Anya Shrubsole, who claimed two for 23 from her eight overs.

Mithali Raj and Deepti Sharma were unbeaten at the close, as India won by seven wickets.

After the match England and Western Storm Captain, Heather Knight said:“It’s really frustrating. We haven’t shown what we can do this series. We’ve started quite slowly with the bat today. Losing three early wickets made it very hard for us.

“I think Nat Sciver batted superbly today and she really didn’t deserve to be on the losing side. She got us up to a score that made us think we were in with a sniff, but when you’re defending 160 you need a lot of things to go your way and unfortunately it wasn’t to be.

“We’ve got one more ODI and it’s not a dead rubber at all because there are ICC Women’s Championship points up for grabs, so we really want to put in an improved performance.

“I know the way we’ve played is not through a lack of effort. The girls have trained brilliantly and put everything into the games.”