The first day of the first Women’s ICC World T20 saw two games being played; one between India and England and the other between West Indies and South Africa. The former belong to Group B along with Pakistan and Sri Lanka, while the latter are in group A with Australia and New Zealand.
England made mincemeat of India in the first game, beating them by ten wickets. India had won the toss and decided to bat first but could take advantage of the reasonably good looking pitch. Holly Colvin scalped three wickets while Katherine Brunt bowled her four overs for 14 runs only as India was restricted to 112/8 in the allocated twenty overs.
In reply, England had no problems in making the required runs without losing a single wicket off less than 16 overs. The openers, Sarah Taylor and Charlotte Edwards, both got to fifties, with Taylor remaining unbeaten on an exact fifty, while Edwards hitting 61 not out.
India will now need to win both their remaining games to qualify for the semi-finals.
In the other game, West Indies managed a narrow, four-run win over South Africa at Taunton. The women from Caribbean scored a modest 123 batting first thanks to Stafanie Taylor’s half century and then restricted the South Africans to 119 all out, with two balls to spare! Mignon du Preez hit a 28-ball 38 that included six hits to the fence, but Taylor won the man-of-the-match award.
Friday will see the Aussie women take on New Zealand and Pakistan play Sri Lanka.