Key events
4th over: England 22-0 (Dunkley 11, Wyatt-Hodge 9) Deepti Sharma into the attack, she whirls through an over in double quick time for the cost of just two singles. Quiet start for England, they might chance their arm a bit now.
3rd over: England 20-0 (Dunkley 10, Wyatt-Hodge 8) Dunkley scampers two runs to leg and then advances to Amanjot Kaur but the bowler sees her coming and sprays it onto the far tramline and out of reach. Bosh! Dunkley stays stock still and smears the next ball back over the bowler for four. A single is tucked off the hip to bring DWH on strike. Another short ball from the bowler, which seems to be a tactic, Wyatt-Hodge mistimes a pull to midwicket and takes a single.
2nd over: England 12-0 (Dunkley 3, Wyatt-Hodge 7) Arundhati Reddy’s medium pace from the other end. A couple of scrappy wides down the leg side are followed by a half-volley that is deposited over mid-off for four by Wyatt-Hodge!
1st over: England 4-0 (Dunkley 2, Wyatt-Hodge 2) Dunkley cuts to backward point where a fantastic diving stops saves the boundary. India have out-batted, out-bowled and out-fielded England so far in this series. That was a nifty start in the inner ring.
Cripes! Kaur slams in a sharp bouncer and Wyatt-Hodge gets in a real tangle, she ends up playing a forehand smash at it above her eye-line and is lucky that it didn’t ploop to a fielder. Wyatt-Hodge scampers a run and breathes a sigh of relief, she’s due a score.
Amanjot Kaur to open the bowling for India, she was very impressive with bat and ball in Bristol. She’ll start with the new white nut to Sophia Dunkley and Danni Wyatt-Hodge. Decent crowd in at the Oval, apparently 14,000 ticket sales in the bag and more people streaming in for some Friday night entertainment. Let’s play!
The players take the field in lovely evening sunshine, we’ll be underway very shortly. Can England put up an imposing total and give themselves a chance to get back into the series? Let’s find out!
A truly crackers third day is coming to an end over in Edgbaston. I’ll forgive you for having one eye on that one until we get going here. Taha is on the tools:
England win the toss and choose to bat first
The coin falls England’s way and Tammy Beaumont doesn’t hesitate to have first use of the biscuit coloured wicket. The sun is beating down in South London but there is a nice breeze too, I’d expect it to be a very nice batting wicket and a quick scoring outfield.
India namer an unchanged side, and why wouldn’t they, they’ve been magnificent so far in this series.
Three ch ch changes for England – Paige Schofield, Charlie Dean and Issy Wong replace Nat Sciver-Brunt, Linsey Smith and Em Arlott.
Teams:
England: Dunkley, Wyatt-Hodge, Beaumont, Jones, Capsey, Schofield, Dean, Ecclestone, Wong, Filer, Bell
India: Mandhana, Shafali, Harmanpreet, Jemimah, Amanjot, Richa, Deepti, Radha, Reddy, Rana, Charani
Preamble
James Wallace
Hello and welcome to sunny South London and the third T20I between England and India at the Oval. The series is on the line already for Charlotte Edwards’ England side after two heavy defeats at Trent Bridge and Bristol see India 2-0 up and needing just one more victory to claim the five match series at the first opportunity.
England will be without their captain this evening and potentially for the rest of the series. Nat Sciver-Brunt suffered a groin strain during her side’s 24-run defeat in the West Country on Tuesday and remains a doubt for the remainder of the series.
Tammy Beaumont steps up to captain the side for the first time in her 247 match international career, the pint sized opener struck a pugilistic tone in her pre match media duties:
“The worst thing we could do right now is panic… obviously, it’s not the circumstances we wanted to be in. We didn’t want to be 2-0 down, and we didn’t want our captain and best batter to be out of the team. But we’re here where we are, and that’s what we’ve got to do.”
We’re here where we are? I think Oasis might be dusting that off in Cardiff later this evening.
Play gets underway at the slightly curious time of 6.35pm, I’ll be back shortly with news of the teams and toss.
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