The Indian women’s cricket team, riding on the back of its spin duo Poonam Yadav and Deepti Sharma, helped India make a dramatic comeback as they beat hosts England to level the T20 series on Sunday. India registered an 8-run victory as England fell like a pack of cards when they needed 33 runs off 30 balls with six wickets remaining.

Off-spinner Sneh Rana defended 14 runs in the final over to cap off an impressive bowling effort from the spinners. Leg spinner Poonam ended the match with figures of 2/17 in her quota of 17 overs, while finished with 1/18 in four overs.

Shafali Verma‘s 48 off 38 balls guided India to 148/4 after being put in to bat.

England were in the driver’s seat for the major part of the chase and had reached 52 for two in the first six overs despite losing Danielle Wyatt and the in-form Nat Sciver cheaply.

Sciver was run out in a rather interesting fashion as wicketkeeper Richa Ghosh ran back to effect a direct hit after failing to collect a widish delivery.

In contrast to India’s innings, the loss of early wickets did not affect the innings’ tempo as England batters kept getting the boundaries.

Indian pacers Shikha Pandey and Arundhati Reddy were way off the mark as they got hammered.

England were cruising with Tammy Beaumont (59) and skipper Heather Knight (30) in the middle but after they were dismissed off successive balls in the 14th over bowled by Deepti Sharma, it made the task a lot tougher for the hosts who still needed 43 off the last 36 balls.

Earlier, India could not capitalise on a blazing start provided by Shafali. A flurry of boundaries from Shafali helped India race to 47 for no loss in four overs.

She slog-swept left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone for a four and six before smashing pacer Katherine Brunt for as many as five boundaries in a row.

Brunt, who had dismissed Shafali in the first T20, had no answer to the disdainful hitting from the Indian, whose five boundaries including a slap past the bowler and three in the cow corner.

Ecclestone bounced back strongly in her following over, bowling a maiden and dropping a tough return catch of Shafali.

The more experienced Smriti Mandhana (20 off 16) was happy being a spectator a the other end.

However, the game changed after the fall of Shafali and Mandhana in a space of three balls.

An out of form Harmanpreet (31 off 25), who promoted herself to number three, and Deepti Sharma (24 off 27) found it tough to maintain the scoring rate.

The series decider will be played on Wednesday.