India’s dominant English tour continues. A durable England team wasn’t able to hold off India in this 1st Metro Bank ODI at the Utilita Bowl in Southampton, as the visitors comfortably chased down 259 with four wickets in hand to go 1-0 up in the ODI series.
First innings
India’s toss voodoo carried over from the T20Is, as Nat Sciver-Brunt won the toss on her return and put England in to bat first. New additions for the ODIs—Emma Lamb, Alice Davidson-Richards, and Kate Cross—all came into the starting XI for England, while India brought in Pratika Rawal, who had arrived about a week ago in England.
In the beaming sunlight, batting first seemed like the right call, but Kranti Goud of India made sure to give England a tough start in the afternoon. After a couple of rusty wides, the fast bowler moved the ball in to topple Amy Jones’ bails, picking up her first international wicket. Her second came soon after with another inswinger to Tammy Beaumont’s pads, initially given not out. An Indian review followed, and the ball-tracker showed three reds to Beaumont.
From 20-2, England bounced back thanks to their skipper. Sciver-Brunt looked like she was never out of commission, easily stabilising matters. She still wasn’t entirely out of the woods, being dropped twice in quick succession—though both were fairly difficult chances. First, the ball just fell short of Harleen Deol at mid-off, and then an over later, she smashed it to a diving Smriti Mandhana at short mid-wicket—too near and too quick to control.
The captain and Lamb weren’t looking to depart anytime soon, but then came Sneh Rana to end their 71-run partnership. Lamb tried to punch it above mid-off but failed to get the height, and Harmanpreet caught her on 39. Third time was the charm with Sciver-Brunt, who once more played it a little slower to short mid-wicket, but a more reliable Jemimah Rodrigues dived and held on to send the skipper back for 41, bringing England to four down before hitting the 100 mark.
Then came the in-form Sophia Dunkley and Davidson-Richards, who slowly but surely brought England back from the brink. Birthday girl Dunkley may have wished for some luck in today’s game, as she was dropped twice by Jemimah at that dreaded short mid-wicket position—first on 22, then on 43. Dunkley reached her half-century and was soon followed by Davidson-Richards, the latter’s first international fifty in three years.
They made it a 100-run partnership for the fifth wicket and got England past 200, but then WT20I player of the series Sree Charani finally got the breakthrough, bamboozling Davidson-Richards and her own keeper Richa Ghosh, who haphazardly stumped the all-rounder at 53. That didn’t break England’s momentum in the slightest, as Dunkley, now joined by Sophie Ecclestone, pulled out all the stops—scoring 49 runs in the final five overs. Dunkley was bowled on the last ball for 83 by Amanjot Kaur, ending England’s innings at 258-6.
Second innings
Mandhana had a new opening partner in Rawal, but that didn’t deter her explosive form in the slightest. The left-hander got in some early boundaries, with a routine chase on the cards for India. But in came a sharp Lauren Bell from around the wicket, as Mandhana walked after a faint edge to Jones behind the stumps at 28. Even Bell was confused after making a half-hearted appeal.
Rawal and Deol fortunately prevented a collapse, carefully proceeding with the innings. Rawal, in her first time in England, seemed steady and pushed on—a good sign given the pressure of competition for that opening spot in this Indian team. But Ecclestone ended her innings on 36 with an off-spin delivery crashing into the stumps.
A lethargic attitude started to set in this chase, and it proved costly. An unaware Deol was run out on 27 by Davidson-Richards trying to complete a soft single. A dismissal that could have been avoided had she grounded the bat—a village cricket error.
The chase continued to unravel when Harmanpreet was LBW to Charlie Dean after England’s review following the umpire’s not-out signal. The captain was gone for 17, still struggling on this English tour, having scored only 82 runs in five innings. Deepti Sharma and Jemimah, however, dragged India away from trouble with an explosive 90-run partnership.
Jemimah was closing in on her first ODI fifty in England, but her eagerness got the better of her. Attempting a scoop on a good-length ball isn’t the smartest move, and Jemimah paid for it—nicking it to Jones off Filer’s delivery and walking back in frustration for 48.
Sharma stuck on and got her fifty—just one short of a run-a-ball—with only two fours and a six. India were closing in comfortably, but keeper Ghosh, in pursuit of a swift finish, was stumped cleanly by Jones off Dean for just 10. Calmness from Sharma and Amanjot sealed the win for India with 10 balls remaining.
“The plan was clear”
India eventually made it past the finish line to complete the chase, albeit with a few road bumps along the way. Deepti Sharma, however, didn’t foresee any bumps and paved a clean route for India to the target with a player-of-the-match-worthy 62*.
“That partnership (with Jemimah) was a turning point,” said Sharma about her role in the chase after the game.
“We knew we had to focus on keeping that partnership; the plan was clear. We knew if we just worked on that, then we could take the game quite close—and we did.”
Even with Sharma at the crease, the death overs put some pressure on India, with the wickets of Jemimah and Ghosh. Still, Sharma felt more than comfortable and calm in that situation.
“I was not nervous,” said the all-rounder.
“I have played in these kinds of situations before, so I knew that if I played till the end, I’d have to finish—I was just focusing on that.”
“We were about 20 runs short”
England have now lost five ODIs in a row against India on home soil—an unsavoury record further extended by this loss in Southampton. Sophia Dunkley offered insight into where things went wrong and seemed to point to the batting, despite scoring 83 herself.
“We were probably 20 runs short,” said Dunkley about her team’s batting.
“I think we did really well to bring it as close as we did. Obviously, Deepti batted really well in the end with Jemimah, so yeah—I do think we were ultimately 20 runs short.”
With the ODI World Cup in India just 10 weeks away, a performance like this isn’t ideal for the four-time world champions. However, the tournament isn’t yet the main focus for the England team.
“We’re not really thinking that far ahead, to be honest,” stated Dunkley about the World Cup.
“We want to win this series against India, we want to come back stronger next game, and then really focus on what we need to do there.”
So far in 2025, England have only won three ODIs—all against the West Indies—and have lost to Australia and now India. Not ideal, with a World Cup later in the year. But if they’re to build momentum, they need to start now against this immovable Indian team, who are looking more and more like favourites for the World Cup on home turf.
