England Women hang on to win epic Woman's World Cup duel with India

England Women hang on to win epic Woman's World Cup duel with India

England's death bowlers did just enough to secure their side a four-run win over India after an exhilirating World Cup match between the two sides.

England batted first and got off to a good start before losing their first wicket for 73. That brought Player of the Match Heather Knight to the crease, who hit a magnificent 109 off just 91 balls to set a superb platform for her side.

Opener Amy Jones chipped in with a well-played 56 off 68 balls, while Nat Sciver-Brunt's 38 off 49 balls was also a useful contribution as they set a competitive total of 284/6 from their 50 overs.

While India's opening bowlers struggled, Deepti Sharma starred with the ball. She ended with figures of 4/51 off her 10 overs, while Shree Charani was a bit expensive for her 2/68 but did pick up the all-important wickets of Knight and Sciver-Brunt.

England got off to a good start with the ball too, picking up Pratika Rawal for just six to put India 13/1 early on.

However, Smriti Mandhana settled the innings well with a superbly played 88 off 94 balls and England struggled to take wickets at regular intervals as India looked to be setting themselves up for a strong finish.

Harmanpreet Kaur scored 70 off 70 balls and Deepti Sharma got 50 off 57 balls as they looked to be cruising for a win on 234/3.

However, things took a turn for the worse for India when Sciver-Brunt picked up Kaur's wicket.

While India had done a decent job of the setup, the loss of wickets at key intervals meant they struggled with the pacing of the innings and they just had too much to do in the final overs.

The 48th over going for just four runs meant that even though they scored 18 off the final two overs they still fell four runs short as England claimed a famous win.

The wickets were shared around by England's bowlers, but the pick of the bunch was Sciver-Brunt for picking up the crucial wicket of Kaur and ending with figures fo 2/47 from eight overs.

An honourable mention also needs to go to Linsey Smith, who kept things very tight with her 1/40 in 10 overs.

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