England get off to winning start
England defeated India by 20 runs in the first women's ODI
Cricinfo staff
27-Nov-2005
Before this tour, England's captain Charlotte Edwards said this would be her toughest challenge yet - playing India in India. But she shook off any concerns to hit a composed 68 as her team took an early lead in the five-match one-day series to beat India by 20 runs.
Jenny Gunn blasted her way to her first international fifty, with 56, and the lower order chipped in to lift England to 188 for 7. England's coach, Richard Bates, admitted afterwards that this was below their target of 200, but he had revised his expectations as the game got underway on a pitch that was slow, low and without much bounce. "We came up a bit short," Bates told Cricinfo, "but soon realised that 188 was a decent score."
India's batsmen made life difficult for England at Faridabad, Monica Sumra and Jaya Sharma putting on a very good opening partnership of 68. But England's bowlers stuck to their task, showing character and discipline to apply the squeeze and take six wickets for 13 runs as India folded under the pressure.
England's ground fielding wasn't up to their usual high standards, but there is room for improvement ahead of the second one-dayer at Lucknow. The teams haven't seen much of each other in one-dayers - aside from one match in this year's World Cup.
"I'm very, very pleased with today's performance," Bates added. "They were a bit of an unknown before today's match. Now we've seen the players we can look at how we can change our ways to restrict their bowlers. It was interesting to see how they fared under pressure - and we got a good look at their spinners. We hope to be firing on all cylinders for the next match."