Richa Ghosh’s blazing 68 falls five runs short as England edge India in final warm-up

India will head into the Women’s T20 World Cup nursing one worry and clinging to one big positive. England beat them by five runs at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff on Wednesday, and the scoreline flattered an India side that needed a stunning 68 from 36 balls by Richa Ghosh just to make the finish respectable. It was the last hit-out before the tournament, and Harmanpreet Kaur’s team will travel to Edgbaston for their opener against Pakistan on 14 June with plenty to chew over.

England set the pace. Put in after India won the toss and chose to field, they rode a 64 from Amy Jones and 57 from captain Nat Sciver-Brunt to 171 for 6 from their 20 overs. The pair did the heavy lifting through the middle, and India’s bowlers, for all their effort, never quite found the brake. Shreyanka Patil was the pick with 2 for 29, but 172 was always going to take some chasing.

The top order goes missing

The chase fell apart before it got going. Smriti Mandhana fell to Linsey Smith for 1, Shafali Verma made a quick 13 before Issy Wong bowled her, and India were 18 for 2 inside the third over. Yastika Bhatia and Harmanpreet Kaur followed without leaving a mark, and a contest that should have built around the senior batters instead landed on the shoulders of the players below them. For a team that has spent months talking up its batting depth, watching four of the top names depart cheaply on the eve of a World Cup is not the dress rehearsal anyone wanted.

Richa Ghosh nearly steals it

What followed was the reason India will not panic. Ghosh walked in with the game drifting and turned it into a scrap, hitting nine fours and two sixes in a 36-ball 68 that dragged the required rate back within reach. The young wicketkeeper went after Linsey Smith and the seamers alike, and for a stretch it looked like she might pull off the heist on her own. England only breathed easy when she advanced once too often, beaten by Smith’s flight and stumped by stand-in keeper Alice Capsey. Smith finished with 3 for 42, and India were bowled out for 166 with a ball to spare.

Warm-ups do not go in the record books, and a five-run defeat off the back of a top-order stumble is the kind of result a side would rather get out of the way now than in their opener. The finishing power is clearly there. Ghosh’s hitting, and the depth that let India get to within touching distance after 18 for 2, will reassure Harmanpreet. The question is whether the players at the top can give her innings like that a platform rather than a rescue act. They have one match to settle it before Pakistan.

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