Even though the
first T-20 match between the English women’s team and the Indian women’s team
at Northampton on Friday did not go India’s way, the match was interspersed
with bright moments for the Indian women.

The Northampton
sky was overcast when the match began with the floodlights on. The Indian team
won the toss and put England to bat first.

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The match was in
the 19th over of the first innings and England was batting at 166 for 4 when
upon noticing Amy Jones advancing off the crease Shikha Pandey bowled in a
slower one.

Jones went for the
slog irrespective and Harleen Deol stretched well beyond the boundary line to
catch a hold of the ball, but she trips over, she recovers within a tenth of a
second and lobs the ball off to dive back and take the catch.

Only moments
earlier, Harmanpreet Kaur had taken an amazing catch at long on to return
Sciver to the dressing room. Another brilliant stumping later, Shikha Pandey
finished the over with three wickets.

The English team
lose a few quick wickets and finish with 177 runs on board at the loss of seven
wickets, setting India a target of 178.

The Indian batting
line-up faced an early loss of Shafali Verma who went for nought after playing
just two balls. At 3 for 1, the Indian team started recovering slowly but lost
two more wickets in quick succession.

The Indian team
was at 54 for 3 in the ninth over of their innings when it began to rain. With
no let-up in the rains for a while, the match had to end using the Duckworth-Lewis
method with India falling short by 18 runs of its D/L par score.

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The pick of the batters
was Nat Sciver who hit the ball all round the park to score the fastest 50 by
an England batter in T-20 internationals.

The teams will be
playing the second match of the T-20 series tomorrow, Sunday.