India Women vs England Women, 1st ODI: England dance to Ekta Bisht tunes

On a typical Wankhede Stadium pitch that had initial help for the medium-pacers because of the early morning moisture and later assisted the spinners, India crushed England by 66 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match ODI series.

Left-arm spinner Ekta Bisht exploited the conditions under bright sunshine in the afternoon to finish with 4/25 including the last three Englishwomen wickets in the space of five deliveries.

Put in to bat, India made 202 despite the in-form Smriti Mandhana falling for only 24 runs. It was a total that could have been comfortably overhauled by the World Champions in the 50-over format. But, England fell to Bisht’s spin to be skittled out from a hopeful situation of 114/4 to 136 all out, losing their last six wickets for an additional 22 runs.

It was a match England Women should have won. Even their captain Heather Knight admitted after the match that not being able to chase down 202 was frustrating.

Knight, who played a sheet-anchor role with an unbeaten 39 at No. 4 but ran out of partners, said: “I think 202 was perfectly chaseable. We were more than happy with 202 to chase. It (pitch) was tricky, it turned, it deteriorated a little bit but once you got to play through that 15-20 balls, it became easier to be able to milk in and play your shots.”

Credit goes to the Indian spin trio of Bisht, off-spinner Deepti Sharma and leg-spinner Poonam Yadav for being patient, waiting for the pitch to take its course and force the England batters into mistakes.

India’s bowling strength has always been spin, especially at home. And when you have all the three varieties in operation – off-spin, leg-spin and left-arm spin – that spells doom for the opposition. The opening spells by the veteran Jhulan Goswami and Shikha Pandey set the momentum for the spinners to take charge once the first Power Play overs were out of the way.

After the England top-order were overcautious against the Indian medium-pacers with Pandey even striking twice in her opening spell to trap opener Amy Jones in her first over and top batswoman Sarah Taylor in front of the wicket, it was the slow bowlers to take centrestage.

Indian players celebrate the fall of England batswoman in the first ODI at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Friday.

Sensing that England women struggle against the turning ball, the trio of Bisht, Yadav and Sharma did not let England settle. Even as Knight and No. 5 Natalie Sciver gave England hope with a 73-run partnership in a little over 17 overs, the Indians were being patient and hoped a mistake would open the floodgates.

That error in judgement came in the form of Sciver running herself out, courtesy Bisht’s run out, flicking the ball back to the stumps in her follow through after the non-striker backed too far to a Knight shot back to the bowler.

After having her first hand at an England dismissal, Bisht could not be kept out of the game. She took a low catch in the deep off Sharma’s bowling to remove Danielle Wyatt before herself putting one wicket after another in the wickets column.

Bisht has been around for nearly eight years, taken 84 wickets in 55 ODIs before Friday’s match. Sends down her spinner at quick pace with short run-up.

One of the rare bowlers in international cricket to bowl with her cap on, the 33-year-old from Almora in UP, has been chipping in with wickets in helpful conditions. 

She may have been unmindful of minor grey areas in her bowling that have been rectified by current head coach WV Raman, himself a more-than-handy left-arm spinner in his playing days.

“Whenever Raman sir finds fault with us in the nets, he comes and rectifies our mistakes. He looks into minute details that we otherwise feel are not wrong. These points help us a lot. For example, I was going sideways earlier but he said not to keep body towards cover position but to keep straight.”

Straight, she did keep her body position and let the ball deviate just enough to beat the outside edges of Nos. 10 and 11, and disturb the off-stump after foxing No. 9 Anya Shrubsole to take a smart return catch, and signal India’s first victory at the Wankhede in three outings.