Dunkley and Capsey steer England to T20 series win over India

England sealed their T20 series against India in emphatic fashion at Bristol, winning by seven wickets with 10 balls to spare as Sophia Dunkley (49 off 44) and Alice Capsey (38 not out off 24) easily chased down the 123 runs required.

Two days on from being utterly dominant with the bat in Derby, India became bafflingly poor on Thursday, stuttering to 35 for five in the opening 10 overs. Two of their top five made ducks, while none of their Derby match-winners – Shafali Verma, Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur – could get out of single figures.

Richa Ghosh, perhaps with a point to prove after her bizarre omission from India’s Commonwealth Games squad earlier in the summer, did her best to rescue the innings with a quickfire 33 off 22 at the back end. But Sophie Ecclestone (three for 25), having already seen off Sneh Rana and Deepti Sharma, added to her list of scalps by trapping Ghosh lbw in the penultimate over.

In reply, England raced to 45 without loss in the powerplay thanks to more powerful hitting from Dunkley. Though she was bowled by Pooja Vastrakar in the 12th trying to slog her 50th run across the line, Capsey finished the job with her usual panache.

England’s chase began and ended with full tosses served up by Sharma - the first smashed through midwicket by Dunkley, who was the dominant player in a 70-run opening partnership with Danni Wyatt; the second, sent flying over short fine leg by Capsey, to end things in style.

England’s only wobble came after Wyatt was caught at long-on in the 10th over; a wicket that seemed somehow to shake Dunkley’s confidence. The 10th over became a maiden from Radha Yadav, with Dunkley trying in vain to find her 50th run, as she consistently played and missed; Vastrakar’s