Renuka took five wickets for the first time, England gave India a target of 152 runs
Medium pacer Renuka Singh produced her best bowling performance of five wickets as India restricted England to 151 for seven in their ICC Women’s T20 World Cup league match here on Saturday. Renuka (5/15) gave England early wickets with the first three wickets in her bag and then took two more wickets towards the end of the innings.
India got off to a flying start after winning the toss, with Renuka instigating Danny Watt to touch the bat on the third ball of the innings and Richa Ghosh making no mistake in taking a catch. Renuka continued the same rhythm and took two wickets in her next two overs to give India the upper hand.
Renuka dismissed Alice Capse in the third over and then took the wicket of Sophie Dunkley in her next over, leaving England at 29 for three in 4.4 overs. After this, Nate Sciver Brunt and captain Heather Knight (28 runs) put on an aggressive batting together to fend off the opponent’s attack. Both of them strengthened England’s innings by playing a partnership of 51 runs in just 38 balls. But just when the partnership was looking dangerous, Shikha Pandey got India the crucial wicket.
This was Pandey’s first wicket since October 2021, Knight caught Shefali Verma standing in the covers on her full toss ball. Nate Sciver added 50 runs in 42 balls but in an attempt to reverse sweep Deepti Sharma’s ball, Smriti Mandhana was caught at short third man. In the final over of England’s innings, Renuka took the wickets of Amy Jones (40 off 27 balls) and Katherine Sciver Brunt, producing her best bowling performance in T20 Internationals.
