England Women vs India Women, 2nd T20I: Smriti Mandhana 79* Guides India To Series-Levelling Win

Opener Smriti Mandhana's 79* and captain Harmanpreet Kaur's unbeaten 29 helped India beat England by eight wickets in the second T20I of the three-match series at County Cricket Ground, Derby on Wednesday. Smriti's glorious unbeaten knock ensured that India avoided any hiccups to chase down a sub-par total set by the hosts England. She was ably accompanied by the Indian captain right till the end to help India get their first win of the series, enabling the visitors to tie the series 1-1.

The Indian team made a decent start to their run chase after Freya Kemp became the youngest woman to make a T20I fifty for England, and helped her team reach 142/6.

Sneh Rana picked three wickets, while Renuka Singh and Deepti Sharma claimed one scalp apiece.

Shafali Verma accompanied ace batter Mandhana to begin India's chase.

The duo took the attack to the English bowlers, hitting a flurry of boundaries in the powerplay.

The southpaw Mandhana made merry of the bowling of first innings hero Freya Kemp, who came on to bowl the fifth over. Kemp was taken to the cleaners and was hit for four boundaries, including one off a free hit. Kemp proved to be expensive and gave away 19 runs in the first over.

India were cruising along to victory, but the introduction of Sophie Ecclestone saw Shafali Verma getting caught and bowled off the last ball of the powerplay, giving England a much-required breakthrough.

The visitors ended the powerplay brilliantly with a score of 55-1.

The departure of Shafali brought in Dayalan Hemalatha. Hemlatha did not trouble the English bowlers and was dismissed soon after scoring just nine runs in the ninth over, bringing the Indian captain to the crease.

Smriti continued to produce boundaries at regular intervals to