Rumeli Dhar stars in Twenty20 victory

India Women 109 for 2 (R Dhar 66*) beat England Women 108 for 8 (J Gunn 38, Goswami 2-14) by eight wickets
Scorecard

Rumeli Dhar's 66 helped India win their first-ever Twenty20 international © Getty Images Enlarge

India won the opening match of their tour of England at the County Ground in Derby, with an eight-wicket victory against the hosts in their first ever Twenty20 game. Rumeli Dhar, the Indian allrounder who opened the batting along with Sulakshana Naik, was named Player of the Match for an unbeaten 66 off 69 balls.

With six fours in her innings, Dhar made up for Naik's early fall and pushed the score close to the target with an 86-run partnership with Mithali Raj, the Indian captain.

The Indian bowlers were hardly overworked in England's innings as five English batsmen ran themselves out while adding 45 runs to the total. Jenny Gunn, the middle-order batsman, top scored for the side with 38 and was the last wicket to fall, having taken the total score to 105. Jhulan Goswami bowled well, giving away only three and a half runs an over and taking two wickets for fourteen runs.

The two teams are further scheduled to play five one-day internationals and two Tests.