India and England Women will lock horns in the final T20I of the three-match series in Bristol on Thursday evening, at 6:30 PM BST.
The series is level at 1-1 presently and the two teams will be looking to come up with their best performance to win the series trophy.
Match Preview
The Indian eves bounced back strongly in the second T20I in Derby. They chased down a target of 143 with ease, riding on Smriti Mandhana’s unbeaten 79. The Indian bowlers also did a brilliant job to restrict the hosts to such a low total. Sneh Rana was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 3/24 to her name. It was a much improved performance as compared to the first game of the series, where they could muster only 132/7 and then allowed England to chase it down with nine wickets and seven overs to spare. But this win has given the Indian team some much-needed confidence and momentum to carry into the series decider.
England, on the other hand, will be looking to bounce back and have the last laugh. They are the hosts and home advantage is still in their favour. They know these conditions better than anyone. The toss is going to play a crucial factor, though, as the teams fielding in the second innings will have to counter a significant amount of dew. But England would be aware of the fact that thisIndian team is highly dependent on certain players like Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur. So, they will come prepared to get them out early and take the early advantage in the match.
Possible Playing XIs
India Women
Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Dayalan Hemalatha, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Richa Ghosh (wk), Kiran Navgire, Pooja Vastrakar, Sneh Rana, Deepti Sharma, Radha Yadav, Renuka Singh
England Women
Sophia Dunkley, Danielle Wyatt, Alice Capsey, Amy Jones (c & wk), Maia Bouchier, Bryony Smith, Sophie Ecclestone, Freya Kemp, Sarah Glenn, Freya Davies, Lauren Bell
Key Players
Smriti Mandhana
The last match showed why Mandhana is such a dangerous player. She led India to a win almost single-handedly. She has scores of 23 and 79* in this series so far and will be eager to deliver in this important match again.
Sophia Dunkley
The 24-year-old got dismissed quite cheaply in the last match but she had played a match-winning knock of 61 in the first T20I. Dunkley is a very talented player with 371 runs to her name in this format, including two fifties.
Prediction
England are the hosts, they won the first match and have home advantage in their favour as well. But this is a second string squad, which doesn’t quite know how to handle pressure well. India, on the other hand, are a more experienced side and they have been in these situations before. Momentum is also in their favour as they won the previous match and hence, they will have a slight edge going into this game.
