England, who needed 33 off 30 balls with six wickets in hand, fell under the pressure generated by the Indian spinners, who were well complemented by their fielders.
Shafali Verma’s 48 off 38 balls allowed India to post 148 for four after coming to bat.
off spinner Sneh Rana Defending 14 runs in the final over to complete the impressive bowling effort of the spinners.
Leggi Poonam took two wickets for 17 runs in four overs and Deepti took one wicket for 18 runs in four overs. England’s innings saw India run out for four.
India won by 8 runs as the visitors came back into action in the second T20I to level the series 1-1!… https://t.co/ci5wb4MS5e
— ICC (@ICC) 1626022354000
The decider of the series will be played on Wednesday.
England were in the driver’s seat for the major part of the chase and reached 52 for two in the first six overs, despite cheaply losing Daniel Wyatt and in-form Nat Sciver.
Sciver was run out in an interesting fashion as wicketkeeper Richa Ghosh ran back to hit a straight after failing to pick up a Widish delivery.
Unlike India’s innings, the loss of early wickets did not affect the pace of the innings as England’s batsmen continued to get boundaries.
Indian fast bowler Shikha Pandey And Arundhati Reddy was wayward and gave Beaumont lots of short deliveries which he sent duly through cover and backward point area.
England were cruising in the middle with Tammy Beaumont (59) and captain Heather Knight (30) but after being dismissed for successive deliveries in the 14th over bowled by Deepti Sharma, it made the task very difficult for the hosts , who still needed 43 off the last 36 balls.
India then tightened the noose on the self-destructive opposition.
Earlier, India could not take advantage of the blazing start given by Shafali.
Shafali’s flurry of fours helped India post 47 for no loss in four overs.
The 17-year-old produced the kind of hitting she is known for. He slogged the left arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone Fast bowler Katherine Brunt was hit for a four and a six before hitting five consecutive boundaries.
Brunt, who had dismissed Shafali in the first T20, had no answer for the contemptuous hitting from the Indian, whose five boundaries included a slap to the bowler and three cow corners.
Ecclestone came back strongly in her next over, bowled a maiden and dropped a hard return catch from Shafali.
The more experienced Smriti Mandhana (20 out of 16) was happy to have a spectator at the other end.
However, the game changed after Shafali and Mandhana fell in the span of three balls.
Harmanpreet (31 off 25), who promoted herself to number three, and Deepti Sharma (24 off 27) found it difficult to maintain the scoring rate.
The India captain was finally released on the pitch with a heave over from spinner Maddie Villiers at deep midwicket.
India lost the innings scored by the openers at 102 for two in 15 overs.
Running out of time, Harmanpreet smashed leggie Sarah Glenn for a four and a six in the 16th over, but before falling for a brilliant run by Brunt from long off.
Some essential boundaries from Deepti and Sneh Rana took India close to 150. India scored 46 runs in the last five overs.
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