Charlotte Edwards led her troops out to the crease with Sarah Taylor and made her mark on the score sheet with 35 off 40, including three fours, before finally being caught by Punam Raut after 14 overs. Opening batter Sarah Taylor scored the first six of the day and marked her return to the squad by contributing 28 with a strike rate of 96.5 before being stumped by Mithali Raj off a ball from Gouhar Sultana, leaving England 1-46.
The runs were kept up through the middle order with Lydia Greenway adding on 13, after Beth Morgan had an excellent return to form, running hard between the wickets, slogging a six and adding 26 to the total. England finished on 133 for 7, on the slow, breaking wicket.
Once again the England eves displayed their world class fielding, where Morgan continued to be on form taking three outstanding catches in the field to remove Mithali Raj at deep mid wicket, Harman Preet Kaur and Rumeli Dhar at deep third man. The talented youngster, Anya Shubsole got the wickets falling early for England bowling at Amita Sharma who was caught at mid wicket by Lydia Greenway in the second over. Strike bowler Katherine Brunt then trapped Raut lbw for six, leaving India 2-30. The top run scorers for India were Raj and Kaur adding 46 and 26 respectively with Kaur hitting the third six of the game. Edwards had the pleasure of removing Raj in the third to last over by bowling to the hands of Sarah Taylor, to leave India on 5-94, after Raj called a runner to the crease. The tail enders for India couldn’t add much in the final overs and India finished on 108 for 7, with England winning the game by 25 runs.
Speaking after the game England Captain Charlotte Edwards said:
‘It’s been a great day for us, we have started the tour as well as I would have liked. It was a really solid performance, a good day at the office today.’
England women will play their second warm up game against Sri Lanka on Monday, May 3, at St Paul’s cricket ground, St Kitts
