Harmanpreet Kaur's Indian team prevailed in a thrilling decider by just 13 runs at the Riverside Ground in Durham on Tuesday, July 22, to seal the three-match ODI series 2-1 against England. It was 100 overs of exhilarating cricket with ebbs and flows throughout as Nat Sciver-Brunt, Emma Lamb and Alice Davidson-Richards decided to put their foot down and defied a marvellous Kranti Goud spell to push India to the brink on a very good batting wicket but the run rate kept creeping up and the visitors hung around like a bad smell long enough to pull off the game and the series.
The foundation of the win was laid by the Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, who smashed her seventh ODI century and one which she and her team needed the most. Kaur had aggregated just 24 runs in the first ODIs and 89 on the whole tour in six games (four T20Is) and a big score was imminent from the veteran, especially leading into the Australia series, followed by the World Cup, and when the stakes were at an all-time high, in a decider, the skipper turned up.
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As solid and consistent as they have been as an opening pair, Smriti Mandhana and Pratika Rawal stitched another half-century stand to give a good start to the Women in Blue after choosing to bat. However, there was yet another slow rebuilding phase where Harleen Deol was slow to start off, leading to Mandhana's dismissal. Then Kaur arrived at No. 4. There was a slight confidence in how she walked to the crease, started middling the ball from the word go and the overdrive she got into soon enough.
Jemimah Rodrigues and Harmanpreet Kaur's partnership
Deol got a few boundaries going and Harmanpreet slowly got into her innings. A drive through backward point off Lauren Filer here, another searing one through covers off Sophie Ecclestone. But as they say, birds of the same feather flock together, as soon as Jemimah Rodrigues came into the middle, she inspired a different kind of confidence in Kaur as well.
Rodrigues got going with three straight boundaries off Charlie Dean and Kaur went into overdrive after completing her fifty. When on a song, there are very few batters who look as dangerous as Kaur was on Tuesday and England paid the price for it. Rodrigues kept the scorecard ticking from the other end and Kaur unleashed the usual beast and completed a sensational ton. The emotions on her face, the celebration conveyed what it meant to her and the team.
Kranti Goo(u)d
The icing on the cake was Richa Ghosh, who picked up from where Kaur left, smashing an unbeaten 38 off 18 and the cameo lifted India's score to 318, which looked good enough given the underperforming batting line-up for England. The openers were dismissed cheaply once again and England were under pressure before Lamb and Sciver-Brunt took their side to safer shores before starting to ruffle a few feathers in the Indian camp.
The partnership, which began in the third over, lasted until the 31st and Indian bowlers had their task cut out. After the big partnership, thankfully for India, they didn't let two batters last long together. There was a wicket after every 25-30 runs, including the big one of Sciver-Brunt, who missed her century by just a couple of runs.
Goud then ran through the middle and lower order and despite Davidson-Richards' 44-run cameo, India had just enough runs and fuel in the tank in terms of bowlers that they prevailed and completed a first ODI and T20I tour win in England. Goud ended with the figures of 6/52. Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur was named the Player of the Match and the Series for her outstanding ton as India are treading well before the World Cup and there are more than a few areas of concern for England.
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