Harmanpreet Kaur, Renuka Singh star as India Women cruise to comfortable 88-run win & historic series victory over England

The Indian women’s team sealed their first ODI series win in England since 1999, winning the second game by 88 runs in Canterbury on Wednesday (September 21). The victory came thanks, in no small part, to captain Harmanpreet Kaur and Renuka Thakur, whose contributions with the bat and the ball respectively saw the team home comfortably in the end.

After Harmanpreet’s unbeaten 143 off 111 balls helped India set England a formidable 334 to chase down, Thakur’s excellent bowling in both the powerplay and the middle overs ensured that the hosts didn’t even get a sniff of the target. The Shimla-born pacer finished with figures of 4 for 57 in 10 overs.

England’s chase got off to a terrible start when Harmanpreet’s dream day continued as a direct hit saw opener Tammy Beaumont (6) return to the hut early. Thakur then furthered the damage by picking up the wickets of Sophia Dunkley (1) and Emma Lamb (15) in her first spell.

Every time the English threatened resistance to a fairly comfortable victory, moments of inspiration pulled the game back in India’s favour, be it Deepti Sharma varying her pace to get Alice Capsey (39) to hole out into the deep or Renuka yorking Danni Wyatt for an entertaining 65 off 58.

It was Wyatt’s dismissal that triggered a mini-collapse of sorts, though, with the Amy Jones-led side going from 167 for 4 to 183 for 8 in the space of three overs. The ninth-wicket pair of Charlie Dean and Kate Cross (14) put on a little bit of a resistance, adding 28 runs before Shafali Verma (1 for 5) trapped Cross in front for her first-ever ODI wicket.

Dean (37) then got together with No.11 Lauren Bell to further delay the inevitable, putting on 34 runs for the final wicket before another part-time off-spinner Dayalan Hemalatha (2 for 6) tempted the former to come down the track only for Yastika Bhatia to whip the bails clean off. England were bowled out for 245 as India won their first bilateral ODI series in the country after 23 long years.

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Harmanpreet Kaur's 143 powers India Women to a formidable total

Harmanpreet Kaur sent the ball to all parts of the ground over the course of her dominant unbeaten 143. (Image: BCCI Twitter)

Having been put in to bat, India, led from the front by a very dominant Harmanpreet Kaur, posted a massive 333-5 in their allotted 50 overs. The Women in Blue didn’t get off to the best of starts when Shafali Verma (8) was dismissed by Kate Cross in the second over.

Vice-captain Smriti Mandhana, with Yastika Bhatia (26) for company, steadied the ship with a 54-run partnership for the second wicket. Mandhana’s promising innings was brought to an end after Sophie Ecclestone (1 for 64) trapped her in front for a well-made 40.

Harleen Deol also played a handy knock, scoring a 72-ball 58 and providing ample support to her skipper, who stole all the headlines. Player-of-the-match Harmanpreet first got together with Deol to put on 113 runs for the 4th wicket.

The fiery right-handed bat from Moga made sure she kept the scorecard moving even after Deol got out, getting to her century at run-a-ball. It was only then that the chaos would unfold. Kaur scored 43 runs off the last 11 balls she faced to take her team well past the 300-run mark, that even the most optimistic fans would have taken with glee at one point.

As a result of the violence that was unleashed through Kaur’s weapon of choice, India ended up adding a massive 121 runs in their final 10 overs, including an unprecedented 62 runs in the last three, allowing them to set up a mountain of a target for their English counterparts.

The action now moves to Lord's with India taking on England in the final ODI of the tour, also Jhulan Goswami's farewell match. It remains to be seen if the Indian team can give the legendary pacer a worthy farewell by closing out a 3-0 whitewash of the hosts. There's only one way to find out for sure though.