Stand-in skipper Smriti Mandhana’s sleek maiden T20 International hundred adorned India’s easy 97-run win over England in the opening match right here on Saturday (June 29, 2025).
The guests now lead the five-match T20I collection 1-0.
Mandhana (112, 62 balls) and Harleen Deol (43, 23 balls) added 94 runs for the second wicket as India posted a commanding 210 for 5 after being invited to bat.
Skipper Nat Sciver Brunt (66, 42 balls) waged a lone battle for England, who have been restricted to 113 all out in 14.5 overs by the on-song Indian bowlers.
For India, debutante left-arm spinner Shree Charani (4/12) was essentially the most profitable bowler, as there was nothing a lot left in England’s innings after they misplaced half of the line-up inside the primary 10 overs for a sub-100 rating.
Mandhana, who led the group in the absence of injured common captain Harmanpreet Kaur, stole the day with an innings that was a full-fledged show of her model, aggression and talent to play photographs across the subject.
She gave the Indian innings some early impetus, making 77 runs with a struggling Shafali Varma (20, 22 balls), whose return to top-flight cricket after a spot of eight months was lower than passable.
Mandhana was the dominant determine in that alliance off simply 8.3 overs.
Shafali’s dismissal didn’t deter Mandhana because the left-hander raised an extra 94 runs for the second wicket with an equally aggressive Harleen, who was dropped on 26 by Danny Wyatt-Hodge off off-spinner Alice Capsey close to mid-wicket.
Mandhana didn’t give any such possibilities to England, and she or he began off with three boundaries off left-arm spinner Linsey Smith in the fourth over, and hardly took her foot off the accelerator.
Later, she additionally punished one other left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone for 2 sixes in the seventh over because the Indian innings chugged alongside.
Mandhana introduced up her fifty in 27 balls, and the following 50 got here off simply 24 balls.
Mandhana quickly went previous 87, her earlier finest in T20Is, and touched the three-figure mark for the primary time in her profession that has 30 fifties.
She reached the coveted milestone in model too, hammering pacer Lauren Bell for 2 consecutive boundaries.
Her knock is the best for India in T20Is, surpassing Harmanpreet’s 103.
At the opposite finish, Deol relied extra on sweeps to fetch boundaries, utilizing the overall lack of path of English bowlers on the day until she fell to Bell, who was England’s most profitable bowler (3/27).
Mandhana was ultimately dismissed by Ecclestone however not earlier than taking India to a place of power.
England tried to stage a late comeback as Bell eliminated Richa Ghosh (12) and Jemimah Rodrigues (0) in the 18th over however by then India have been already closing in on the 200-run mark.
