England’s gold medal hopes over after falling short in run chase against India

England’s bid for a Commonwealth Games gold medal was ended after they fell agonisingly short in a nerve-jangling run chase against India at Edgbaston.

Set 165, which would have been their highest successful T20 chase on home soil, England needed 12 from the last two balls but Maia Bouchier could only get a single off the penultimate delivery.

There was little in the way of consolation when Sophie Ecclestone cleared the rope off the last ball as England lost by four runs, with India into the final to face either Australia or New Zealand.

England must therefore dust themselves off for a bronze medal match on Sunday against the losers of the other semi and captain Nat Sciver admitted the prospect of defeat had not occurred to them.

“I’m gutted. It’s such a small margin game, T20,” said Sciver, who has been deputising as skipper for the injured Heather Knight during the Games.

“Any loss is tough to take, we obviously wanted to be in the gold medal match and hadn’t considered not (being in the final).

“It will be a tough afternoon, probably a few quiet people but playing for a medal is something we’ve wanted to do ever since we heard about the Commonwealth Games. We’ll be out in full force for that.”

England entered the knockout stages having won all six T20s this summer, including all three group games at a canter, but they were put under immediate pressure as Smriti Mandhana collected boundaries at will, registering 45 of India’s first 50 runs after they had won the toss.

Mandhana made a duck in India’s 2017 50-over World Cup final defeat against England at Lord’s but reached her half-century off just 23 balls in Birmingham, uncorking sixes off Issy Wong, Sciver and Sarah Glenn as India raced to 73 without loss after seven