Indian eves crush England by eight wickets

Indian women came up with a superb all-round performance to score an emphatic eight wicket win over England in the opening one-day match of the five-match Hero Honda series at the Guru Nanak-ICL grounds in Chennai on Sunday.

After dismissing the visitors for paltry 106 in 44.4 overs, India scored 110 for 2 in just 27.2 overs to complete their domination over an inexperienced English side.

Left-arm spinner Neetu David, who was declared woman-of-the-match, was England's wrecker-in-chief claiming four wickets for 14 runs in nine overs.

Left to defend a small total, England bowlers could do little as Indian skipper Anjum Chopra (26) and Mithali Raj (36) added 59 runs for the unbroken third wicket partnership in 10.2 overs to guide the team to a comprehensive victory.

Mithali Raj, who joined Chopra after the departure of Anju Jain (21), was in a devastating form smashing seven boundaries in her 33-ball knock.

England used as many as seven bowlers and even brought on off-spinner Dawn Holden in the second over of the innings.

But, deprived of any practice ahead of the tour due to extreme cold back home, they were wayward conceding as many as 25 extras including 19 wides.

Earlier, put into bat, England never got going as they were pinned down by some good bowling by debutant medium pace bowler Julan Goswami, who finished with 2 for 15, and Sunita Singh (2/25).

In their effort to accelerate the scoring rate, the visitors went for rash shots and lost wickets at regular intervals.

Skipper Clare Connor was the top scorer with a patient 22.

Mail Cricket Editor