Ahead Of ICC Women's T20 World Cup, Smriti Mandhana hits career low in England series

India's vice-captain Smriti Mandhana had disappointing outing with the bat in the entire three-game T20I series against England. After scores of 0 and 32 in the first two matches of the series, the star opener failed to create an impact in the third game as well on Tuesday, May 2 at the County Ground.

All-time career low against England

In the first innings, Smriti failed to score a big knock as managed only eight runs off nine balls before being removed by Charlie Dean.

Also Read: Despite series loss against England, Harmanpreet Kaur beats Suzie Bates to break all-time women's cricket record

She finished the series with only 40 runs, which happens to be her lowest against England in a three-game T20I series. Her last lowest was 64 during England Women's tour of India.

Smriti Mandhana’s lowest scores against England in a 3-match T20I series:

Decent batting but underwhelming performance with ball

Coming back to the third T20I, England won the toss and  chose to bowl first. India's opening duo of Smirti Mandhana and Shafali Verma failed to give a strong start, as both got out on just 8 of 9 balls and 11 off 6 balls respectively. However, Yastika Bhatia and Jemimah Rodrigues controlled the innings with their quick-fire cameos. The left-handed batter smashed a quick-fire knock of 32 off 18 before getting run out by Sophie Ecclestone. Meanwhile, Jemimah was looking good before she lost her wicket to Lauren Bell after scoring 29 off 19 balls.

Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur scored a rusty unbeaten 56 runs off 40 balls, hitting seven boundaries at a strike rate of 140.00. On the other hand, all-rounder Deepti Sharma played a solid knock of 32 off 24 balls, which led India post 180/5 at the end of the first innings.

In reply, England endured a similar start to India, as they suffered a top-order collapse. However, Alice Capsey and Heather Knight played astonishing knocks to seal the game for England. Alice was removed by Arundhati Reddy after scoring 82 off 43 with the help of nine boundaries and three sixes at a strike rate of 190.70.

Meanwhile, Heather Knighed remained unbeaten with 70 off 42 balls with the help of 10 fours. The duo helped England win the game by six wickets.