Stand-in England captain Amy Jones rued the lack of runs and losing wickets at regular intervals in her side's seven-wicket loss to India in the first ODI at Hove. After being asked to bat first, England never got going with the bat and managed to post 227 in the first innings, thanks to Alice Davidson-Richards' maiden ODI half-century.
Cameos from Sophie Ecclestone (31), Sophia Dunkley (29) and Charlie Dean (29 not out) gave England something to bowl at as India kept them in check with regular strikes, with Deepti Sharma taking two wickets and veteran Jhulan Goswami had a terrific spell of 1/20 in her 10 overs.
In defence of 227, pacer Kate Cross struck early to dismiss Shafali Verma, helped by a terrific catch from Charlie. But vice-captain Smriti Mandhana led the chase with a five 91 and got support from Yastika Bhatia (50) and captain Harmanpreet Kaur (74) to take India over the line and go 1-0 up in the three-match series.
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"Disappointing. We didn't have enough runs, that's the main problem. Alice batted brilliantly through the middle and at the end to give us a chance. But we needed a few wickets in the powerplay, only got the one and that's where we fell short."
"We thought it was a trickier wicket but India bowled well and put us under pressure. Then losing regular wickets, it was hard to get going until we got that partnership with Alice and Soph (Sophie Ecclestone). Regular wickets cost us," said Amy after the match ended.
Speaking on Sky Sports after the match ended, former England men's fast bowler Steven Finn praised the Indian bowling attack on keeping the hosts at a very tight leash and then chasing down the total with 34 balls to spare.
"England will look back at it and think that they didn't build enough big partnerships. They got going and started to threaten to build a partnership that might take them to a big total but never managed that. India were outstanding with the ball, both their plans and the way they executed them."
"Then on the reverse side, India had great impetus at the top of the order with Bhatia and the two experienced campaigners of Mandhana and Harmanpreet. They shared a great partnership which broke the back of the chase."
The two sides now head to Canterbury for the second ODI set to take place on Wednesday.
