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India scrape last-ditch victory

India (132-9) bt England (128-8) by 1wkt

A Women's one-day international that threatened to die on a slow-turning wicket at Old Trafford burst into life as India scrambled to a final-over win.

Renu Margaret and Neetu David needed three runs from Clare Taylor's last over to give India their first limited-overs victory in England. They scrambled leg-byes off the first two deliveries and the third also struck a pad as the ball ran from Margaret's leg to the boundary.

Having elected to bat, England limped to 128 for eight from their 50 overs. There was little urgency at the top of the order and all the batsmen had trouble placing the ball in the gaps to keep the scoreboard ticking over.

Both sides would have been disappointed that they were given the third use of a wicket. It was used for Saturday's day-night CGU National League match between Lancashire and Essex and a Second XI game on Monday.

India's spinners got the ball to grip and turn, sometimes sharply, and, in Anjum Chopra and the big hitting debutante Rubanjali Shastri, had the batsmen to turn the match.

Chopra took 110 deliveries to record the top score, 52, including four boundaries. When the left-hander departed, attempting to put a Laura Newton delivery into the pavilion, England looked in the box seat. But the off-spinner Shastri arrived to blast 22 from 26 deliveries, with four boundaries, and turn the match India's way.

Taylor, the unlucky bowler at the finish, deserved better after a fine opening spell of two for nine from eight overs. She came back to claim Shastri's wicket and also ran out Kalyani Dhokarikar with a direct hit from cover as the tension mounted.

Claire Connor top-scored for England with just 16 but the entire side could only manage nine boundaries in 50 overs. The run-out despair of last season's one-day whitewash against Australia also resurfaced with Karen Smithies, Cathryn Leng and Newton all failing to beat the throw.