1 hour ago
4
Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature
WICKET! Dunkley c Ghosh b Sharma 10 (England 21-1)
A sloth-like finger of doom from the umpire sends Dunkley on her way after she zigzags her body to cut, whispers an edge and is very neatly caught behind.
4th over: England 21-0 (Dunkley 10, Wyatt-Hodge 9) Time for spin already, with Shreyanka Patil. Wyatt-Hodge is eager for runs but can’t quite get enough welly or broad enough bat to reach the rope.
3rd over: England 14-0 (Dunkley 9, Wyatt-Hodge 3) Dunkley picks up the first boundary of the day with a huge yahoo down the ground for six. A couple of singles to complete the over. And England tick along. They might want to turn that tick to a gallop.
2nd over: England 6-0 (Dunkley 2, Wyatt-Hodge 2) Sharma’s first ball is dropped by Rodrigues at point as Dunkley cuts with static feet. She only had to leap a little but somehow let it slip through her fingers, perhaps surprised by the fierceness of the stroke. She waves her hand in apology and Sharma smiles with sad eyes.
1st over: England 2-0 (Dunkley 0, Wyatt-Hodge 0) Reddy with the new ball, running towards the tall white blocks of flats at one end of a full-looking Nevill Ground. Just a couple of wides to start things off.
The flags are waving, the vuvuzelas blowing. Dunkley and Wyatt-Hodge bounce gloves and jog into the middle
Raf Nicholson is tanning her ankles in Bristol and reports lasagne and profiteroles in the press box, “the food of dreams,”
“Gorgeous sunshine. Ground looking busy. England did a special cap presentation earlier to nine year old Evie, who also had a keeping master class from Amy Jones before play. She needs to watch her back because Evie looks pretty good to me .”
India XI - Harmanpreet and Shreyanka Patil return
Harmanpreet, who was rested for the first T20, returns and fancies the pitch looks dry and so they play the extra spinner, Shreyanka Patil. Bharti Fulmali and Kranti Gaud miss out.
India XI: Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (wk), Deepti Sharma Arundhati Reddy, Shreyanka Patil, Sree Charani, Nandni Sharma.
England XI - Smith and Wyatt-Hodge return
England have bolstered their batting, with new mum Danni Wyatt Hodge returning. Linsey Smith is also back. Issy Wong and Tilly Corteen-Coleman miss out.
England XI: Sophie Dunkley, Danni Wyatt-Hodge, Amy Jones (wk), Alice Capsey, Heather Knight, Freya Kemp, Dani Gibson, Charlie Dean, Sophie Ecclestone, Linsey Smith, Lauren Bell.
England win the toss and will bat
Charlie Dean: “it feels a good day to get out there – it looks a bit of a belter. We were in a brilliant position with both bat and ball at the half way stage, we need to be more ruthless.”
Harmanpreet Kaur: would have batted too. Happy with the team and the balance pre World Cup.
Preamble
Hello! The World Cup is now less than two weeks away and England have just two games left to primp and preen their strategy. Out-thought and out-bowled by India in the first T20 at Chelmsford, they will want to do better today in Bristol – stand-in captain Charlie Dean pinpointed “leaving ourselves too much to do at the end,” as a flaw to fix.
Play will start at 2.30pmBST, the toss and the teams at 2pm. Do join us.
