Ekta Bisht stars as Indian women beat England by 66 runs in the first ODI

Thanks to the efforts of Ekta Bisht, Deepti Sharma and Shikha Pandey the Indian women’s team defeated England women by 66 runs in the first ODI played at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Friday.

England captain Heather Knight won the toss and decided to field first. Indian openers Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues got off to a decent start, scoring 45 runs in the first 10 overs.

The two Indian openers added 69 runs for the opening wicket in 15.1 overs. Mandhana was the first batter dismissed for 24 runs, while Rodrigues ended up as the top scorer with 48 runs.

The Indian women team were reduced to 95 for 5 before Taniya Bhatia and Mithali Raj added 54 runs for the 6th wicket. Jhulan Goswami scored an important 30 runs and helped the team post a modest total of 202 in 49.4 overs.

Chasing the target of 203 runs to win, England were reduced to 27 for 2 at the end of 10 overs in the face of some disciplined Indian bowling. Nat Sciver and England captain Heather Knight then steadied the ship with a 73-run stand for the 4th wicket.

Sciver was run out by Ekta Bisht for 44 runs at the score of 111, after which the Indian bowlers started picking wickets at regular intervals. Bisht broke the backbone of the England batting line up as the hosts bowled out the visitors for just 136 runs in 41 overs.

Brief scores:

Indian women 202 in 49.4 overs (Jemimah Rodrigues 48, Mithali Raj 44, Jhulan Goswami 30, Ecclestone 2/27, Sciver 2/29) beat England 136 in 41 overs (Nat Sciver 44, Heather Knight 39*, Ekta Bisht 4/25, Shikha Pandey 2/21, Deepti Sharma 2/33) by 66 runs.

With this win, Indian women have moved up to 2nd in the points table of the ICC World Championship. The 2nd ODI will be played on 24th February.