England Women began their home series against India Women with a clinical performance with both bat and ball, not allowing the visitors into the contest after a minor blip early on in the first Twenty20 international. Sarah Taylor was the star with the bat in Canterbury, scoring a brisk half-century to set up a strong total, after which Katherine Brunt and Danielle Wyatt led an all-round bowling effort.

The only time England Women were on the back foot was when they lost their captain Charlotte Edwards early after getting sent in to bat. She was lbw to N Niranjana, leaving England 1 for 1 in 1.1 overs. The recover began immediately, though, with Laura Marsh and Taylor adding 105 runs for the second wicket.

Marsh scored 41 off 39 balls and Taylor 69 off 49 deliveries, with ten fours. By the time they were separated in the 15th over, England were scoring at more than a run a ball. Gouher Sultana dismissed both batsmen in successive overs, which meant England were deprived of momentum towards the end and reached 137 for 5, when they could have got a little more.

India's chase began poorly when Brunt dismissed both openers in successive overs to reduce the visitors to 20 for 2 in five overs. Mithali Raj and Harmanpreet Kaur had begun a useful partnership, adding 30 before two more wickets fell in the space of four runs to leave India 54 for 4 in 13th over. There was no coming back from there. India were restricted to 107 for 8 and Wyatt picked up two wickets in the final over to finish with economical figures of 4-1-10-2.