India’s Mithali Raj scored 75 points to seal his team’s four-field victory in the third ODI against England in Worcester; Watch the T20I Women’s Series between England and India live on Sky Sports Cricket, starting at 6pm on Friday July 9
India’s captain, Mithali Raj, became the top run scorer in women’s international cricket by guiding her team to a tense four-field victory in the third ODI against England.
The 38-year-old, who finished undefeated with 75 of 86 balls, surpassed former England captain Charlotte Edwards’ total of 10,273 runs in all formats as the Tourists triumphed in Worcester with just three deliveries to spare.
Raj drove Katherine Brunt through the decks to the decisive limit that earned India two points and kept her hopes of winning the multi-format series ahead of all three T20I games starting on Friday, live on Sky Sports Cricket.
England, who had won the first two ODIs, recorded 219, with Nat Sciver scoring the highest at 49, but it was not enough as the Indian captain held firm to clinch a narrow victory.
Although partly influenced by the nighttime rain that reduced the match to 47 overs per side, Raj’s decision to go bowling after winning the toss was quickly vindicated when Tammy Beaumont fell in love with a duck, lbw crossing the line with Shikha. Pandey.
Aside from one more Pandey giving up three fours for Lauren Winfield-Hill, it took her and Heather Knight (46) time to find some rhythm as they gradually built a 67-out-of-90 partnership.
Sneh Rana separated the pair with their fourth ball, tempting Winfield-Hill (36) to sweep and knock Pandey over the edge before Sciver’s arrival injected some impetus into the innings.
He hit a spirited 49 of 59 balls but, like the captain, Sciver perished for just under his half century while carrying the Indian spinners: Smriti Mandhana leapt to his left to complete an impressive long-time catch.
With the boundaries drying out and the wickets falling at regular intervals, Sophia Dunkley was left to guide England towards the 200 mark.
Dunkley compiled 28 of 35 balls but, once Deepti Sharma (3-47) threw it around her legs, it was only thanks to some late shots from Kate Cross, with 15 no-outs from eight balls, that the home team climbed to 219 to all.
India started solidly in the power game, with Mandhana revealing a silky punching game as he dispatched Brunt to four in a row in his initial 46 association with Shafali Verma (19).
But Cross, England’s five-field hero in the series’ second match, made a much-needed breakthrough, persuading Shafali Verma to go wrong for cover and Sophie Ecclestone struck shortly after when Jemimah Rodrigues intervened.
Mandhana looked well placed, hitting eight limits on her 49 of 57 balls, only for Sarah Glenn to serve the left-hander with a delivery that skidded and pinned her leg before leaving India in an uncertain position at 81-3.
Vice Captain Harmanpreet Kaur (16) helped Raj repair the damage with a vigilant position of exactly 50 before becoming Knight’s 50th ODI victim, lbw attempting a messy reverse sweep that replay suggested would have failed.
However, Raj pushed Cross to the limit to advance his half century and began to step on the accelerator, with Rana contributing a vital 24 of 22 balls before he fell to Ecclestone (2-36) in the penultimate over and the captain saw her. . side of home.
Watch the T20I women’s series between England and India live on Sky Sports Cricket, starting at 6pm on Friday.
