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Player of the Match
Player of the Match

Pandey, Goswami four-fors set up series win for India

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'Rectifying a small flaw has made a huge difference' (5:12)

Shikha Pandey reflects on the improvements in her game after a match-winning spell (5:12)

India 162 for 3 (Mandhana 63, Raj 47*, Raut 32, Shrubsole 2-23) beat England 161 (Sciver 85, Pandey 4-18, Goswami 4-30, Poonam 2-28) by seven wickets

Pacers Shikha Pandey and Jhulan Goswami foiled England's plans of "creating history" - winning a bilateral ODI series in India for the first time - with sizzling four-wicket hauls, which helped set up a 162-run chase for India. With Smriti Mandhana scoring 63 and captain Mithali Raj chipping in with a quick 47 not out, India then romped to a seven-wicket win to earn two more ICC Women's Championship points and also take an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.

England captain Heather Knight opted to bat in the morning at Wankhede Stadium with the objective of "getting some good runs on the board" following their botched chase on a grassy pitch at the same venue in the first game three days ago. That didn't happen, and it was chiefly down to Pandey and Goswami, who became the first pair of Indian pacers to take four-wicket hauls in a women's ODI. Goswami and Pandey bowled in tandem for the whole of the Powerplay like in the last game - they had left England at 27 for two then, this time it was 31 for three after ten overs. They bowled a combined total of 45 dot balls along the way.

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Having played second fiddle to Goswami in the series opener, the younger Pandey took centre stage with a career-best 4 for 18 on this occasion, accomplished over two spells of seven and three overs, each worth two wickets.

In an incisive opening spell of swing bowling, Pandey struck with her sixth ball as opener Amy Jones flicked a nip-backer straight to Ekta Bisht at square leg. Goswami, later named the Player of the Match, made further inroads with the movement she got off the pitch, forcing Sarah Taylor to play on in a bid to drive a wide delivery.

Knight fell next, chipping a full and wide delivery from Goswami to short cover. Goswami went off the attack after that, with spin introduced in the form of Deepti Sharma, but Raj stuck with Pandey, who proved the decision right by eliciting a top edge from Tammy Beaumont that was pouched by Deepti at the square-leg boundary with a dive forward.

At 44 for four in the 14th over, it was going away from England, but their punt of dropping Danielle Wyatt for Lauren Winfield paid off to some extent. Winfield muscled four fours in her 49-ball 28 as she put on 42 runs with Natalie Sciver. But after she holed out in the 28th over, caught by Mandhana off Poonam Yadav, England lost their way.

In the first game, they had lost their last seven wickets for 25 runs. It wasn't as bad this time, but they still lost five wickets for 26 runs, going from 93 for four to 119 for nine.

Little, however, seemed to deter Sciver, who charged down the track against both the spinners and the quicks while also shuffling around the crease to plunder runs behind the wicket. She added 42 runs with No. 11 Alex Hartley - the highest tenth-wicket stand for England. But with 39 balls left in the innings, it was all over for Sciver as Goswami returned to beat her attempt at playing a paddle sweep and trapped her in front. Her 109-ball innings, studded with 12 fours and a six, added a semblance of respectability to England's total, but there was always a feeling that it wouldn't be enough to trump India.

India's chase didn't begin smoothly either, as Jemimah Rodrigues fell for a ten-ball duck, mistiming a flick off Anya Shrubsole to midwicket in the second over.

But it was all India after that as Punam Raut, who replaced Harleen Deol in the XI, took India past 50 with a steady - if slow - 65-ball 32 in the company of Mandhana, who looked more like her fluent self this time than in the previous game.

Raut received a reprieve along the way on 26 when Sciver dropped her off her own bowling, but it didn't cost England much, the batsman falling to Georgia Elwiss thanks to a lightning-quick stumping by Sarah Taylor. With the dismissal, Taylor became only second woman to complete 50 stumpings in ODIs after India's Anju Jain.

The second-wicket stand was worth 73 runs, and Mandhana then teamed up with Raj to take India past the three-figure mark in the 26th over with the asking rate well in control.

Mandhana, meanwhile, hit the occasional boundary, including the one that took her to a 15th ODI half-century. The two added 66 runs in 14 overs before Shrubsole sent Mandhana back with a yorker. The target was only 22 runs away at that point, though, and Raj finished off the job with Deepti by her side, ending on an unbeaten 69-ball 47.

IND Women 2nd innings Partnerships

WktRunsPlayers
1st1S MandhanaJI Rodrigues
2nd73PG RautS Mandhana
3rd66M RajS Mandhana
4th22M RajDB Sharma