When Nat Sciver-Brunt was named as England captain in April, her teammate Tammy Beaumont might have had cause to feel slight disappointment at being overlooked, given her own success at the helm of Welsh Fire.
But at the Oval on Friday evening, with Sciver-Brunt out of the third Twenty20 international against India due to a groin injury, Beaumont finally got the chance to lead the side, and managed a feat that has so far eluded Sciver-Brunt – a win against India, albeit by the skin of their teeth.
India had looked to be racing to victory after Shafali Verma smashed 47 from 25 balls and Smriti Mandhana glided her way to a half-century, but after Mandhana top-edged Lauren Filer to mid-on in the 16th over England fought back at the death to seal a narrow five-run win.
“Tammy was outstanding today,” her teammate Sophia Dunkley said. “She was really strong with us about backing ourselves and staying in the fight.”
Filer’s 16th over was ferocious, including two balls clocked at 79mph and one that pinged off Richa Ghosh’s helmet. Lauren Bell put down a tricky chance off Ghosh, diving forward at short fine leg, but Charlie Dean held on to a brilliant diving catch in the deep in the 19th to make good the error.
India were left needing 12 from the final over, bowled by Bell, and six from the final ball, but Harmanpreet Kaur could only fire it straight into the hands of mid-off.
Dunkley said: “I thought our bowlers did such a great job to take it that deep. We weren’t at our top in all three departments but we fought through it and we got the win, which is the most important thing.”
It should never have got that close: earlier, England had suffered a mind-boggling late-innings collapse of nine for 31, squandering the hard-won advantage of a 137-run opening partnership between Dunkley and Danni Wyatt-Hodge.
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Dunkley – who somehow never quite looked in control in her innings of 75 – charged down the track and got a leading edge back to the bowler Deepti Sharma, before Harmanpreet held on to a second chance proffered by Wyatt-Hodge to cover, and Amy Jones, Issy Wong and Filer all fell to first-ball ducks.
But the combined efforts of the England bowlers ensured the series remains alive for the fourth T20 at Manchester on Wednesday.
