Cricket News Update: ENG VS IND Semi-Final Commonwealth- Smriti Mandhana and Sneh Rana helped India qualify
India is having one of the best Commonwealth tours this year at Birmingham. They are already leading the chart with 28 medals, with 9 being Gold. Today, India went one step closer to another Gold, as Indian Women Cricket moved to the finals of Cricket today, defeating the host, England.
Smriti Mandhana smashed a 23-ball half-century against England in the Commonwealth Games semi-final on Saturday to shatter her own recordEngland Women, though, hit a six on the last ball but lost the game by four runs. The semi-final game between India Women and England started with India winning the toss and deciding to bat.
Smriti Mandhana made the most out of the powerplay by her attacking innings of 61 runs before both the openers were sent back and India were 77/2 in 8.3 overs.
With the base being set by Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues (44*), Harmanpreet Kaur (20) and Deepti Sharma (22) took India to a good total of 164/5 in 20 overs.
England Women batted almost like Indian players, with an attacking nature. England scored 81 runs in 9 overs but lost three wickets as well. Towards the end, England required 30 runs in the last three overs with seven wickets remaining.
Of these 18 balls, Sneh Rana gave just 12 runs in her 12 balls, taking two wickets and changing the game in India’s direction even when India was penalised with one fielder in the last over due to slow over-rate.
The run-outs broke England’s middle order, as three of the six wickets England lost were run-outs. Amy Jones (31) and Nat Sciver (41) tried pulling things off, but run-outs and tight bowling from Sneh Rana, Deepti Sharma and Pooja Vastrakar turned the match in India’s favour.
“Brilliant stuff from the Indian Girls. Maza aa gaya. Sneh Rana and Deepti Sharma were brilliant in the last few overs and a spectacular win to beat England in the semi-finals. Will be rooting for our girls in the finals tomorrow @BCCIWomen #IndvEng”, said Virender Sehwag on Twitter.
India will now play the Gold-medal match against the winner of the second semi-finals between India and Australia. India started their commonwealth journey by losing the first game against Australia, and it looks like they’ll get a good chance of taking revenge at the right place.
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