India women’s team slumped to their first loss in the T20 World 2023 as they bottled up a chance to maintain their cent per cent record in the Group stage match against England on Saturday.

Chasing a target of 152 runs, Team India vice-captain Smriti Mandhana (52) notched up a brilliant half-century but failed to find support from the other end as — Shafali Verma (8) and captain Harmanpreet Kaur (4) — fell cheaply. Jemmimah Rodrigues (13) too couldn’t add much to the team tally. Mandhana was the top-scorer of the team. Her 41-ball innings included seven boundaries and one six.

However, wicketkeeper-batter Richa Ghosh (47 not out) played a resilient knock but it was not enough to take her side over the line. Her unbeaten knock of 34 deliveries was laced with four boundaries and two hits over the fence while Deepti Sharma was run out for 7 and Pooja Vastrakar (2 not out) remained unbeaten on the other end.

For England, leg-spinner Sarah Glenn was the pick of the bowlers, returning figures of 2/27.

Earlier, Nat Sciver Brunt (50) and Amy Jones (40) played crucial knocks to help England post a chaseable total of 151/7 at St George’s Park, Gqeberha. India’s Renuka Sigh, who addressed the press conference after the match, picked up a five-wicket haul but her effort went in-vain.

“I didn’t that these are the [bowling figures in a T20 World Cup, male or female]. Because I wasn’t thinking about five wickets. I was thinking about hitting the right areas,” Singh said.

“I had discussed with Troy earlier that I have not been able to take wickets in the power play. I had practiced and was able to execute this today. We had discussed that batters are reading beforehand, that I am bowling inswing. Thereby we practiced on straight ones, outswingers, and slower ones,” she added.

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