India Women vs England Women, 20th Match - Live Cricket Score, Commentary

With this result, England have qualified for the semis while India are now left with a couple of tricky games. Everything isn't lost yet but it must be such a shattering defeat with the game slipping away right at the end. Was such a special knock from Mandhana. Hardly played a shot in anger and yet she was going at such a good rate. And how good was that knock from Heather Knight too, with Sciver-Brunt rightly pointing out how she made it so difficult for the bowlers to bowl at her. Overall, a brilliant game of cricket on a good pitch in Indore. Hope you enjoyed our coverage. Until next time, it's a goodbye from Sagar Chawla on behalf of Harish, Akshay Maanay and Kumar Abhisekh Das.

Sciver-Brunt | England captain: So, so happy. I think everyone just showed how calm they were and really clear on what they wanted to do. I think we knew throughout the bowling innings that we really needed to stick in. A partnership obviously happened with Harman and Smriti and they looked like they were going to chase it easily, but I think we knew if we could get a wicket at one end, we could really put them under pressure. (About fielding and death bowling) It's something that we've spoken about before the game. We haven't really been tested towards the end of our innings with the ball. We wanted to be really prepared for that in terms of our skills and also the tactics. Everyone came in with some brilliant plans and executed brilliantly. She (Smith) was always going to bowl the last over. The one I wasn't sure about was when Sophie would bowl her last over. Obviously, I managed to get a wicket in my over, hopefully she could kill the game, which she did. That (Knight's knock) innings was special. Just the use of her sweeps and reverse sweeps, made it so difficult for them. And she showed some brilliant intent throughout. I thought we could have got more runs. We probably messed up the other last 5-6 overs. But yeah, crucial runs probably from Charlie as well, who is seeming pretty confident with bat in hand. That's a massive game (vs Australia). One to really look forward to, to really get into the battle with the other top side. But yeah, we're so happy to obviously get the qualification for the knockout stages. We'll want to take those last two games and hopefully bring some confidence into the knockouts.

Harmanpreet | India captain: I think Smriti's wicket was something which was a turning point for us and I still think we had too many batters. I don't know how things went the other way, but credit goes to England. They didn't lose. They kept bowling well and kept getting wickets there. It (the feeling) is bad because you have put in so much hard work and you kept ticking the box till the end, but last 5-6 overs didn't go according to your plan. That's the worst but definitely it's a very heartbreaking moment. We are playing good cricket, we are not giving up. But that last line we have to cross now because it's been the last three games where we showed up with good cricket. But unfortunately ended up on the losing side and hopefully the next game is very important for us and we'll cross that line. Our bowlers did a really good job because when Nat and Heather were batting, they were looking really good. And we thought if we can get them to less than 300, that's a plus for us because this pitch and the ground is very fast and we can chase, that's why we wanted to bowl first. A lot of things we did right. But again, last five overs, something which again we need to, as a group, sit together and rethink. (If they needed an extra batter) These things will keep going because I think things were under control when Smriti and I were batting. And I think Smriti's wicket was turning for us. But still, we had Richa, Amanjot and Deepti, who have won games for us in the past. But unfortunately, today we were not able to make it. It was a very important match for all of us. We wanted to show good cricket as a group. And unfortunately, in the end, we were not able to make it. Even though we ended up losing, we really played good cricket and we haven't given anyone anything easily. But now the next game is very important and hopefully it will go our way.

Heather Knight | Player of the Match: Yes, just got myself in and I felt like I wanted to put the accelerator down. I felt like we probably needed 300 on that pitch actually, because it was a quick outfield. A bit frustrated with how we got out in the end. I felt like if a setback wasn't there we'd have pushed it well above 300, really pleased. I've seen 300 caps as well, so I was desperate to put in a sort of statement performance on a big cap occasion, pleased that I did that. I think it was a tiny bit slow maybe at the start, but definitely good compared to the pitches we've had in terms of the amount of spin. Felt like I had a lot more boundary options and yeah, just nice to be able to free up a little bit. So once I got myself in and began to play reverse sweeps, I got a couple of top edges, got lucky with those, but really pleased with sort of a match-defining innings. That's what I wanted after not contributing too much the last few games. (on using a variety of sweeps) Just different conditions. It just felt like it was really working for me today. I felt that my reverse was on, there was a gap there and obviously any sort of nudge on it, it sort of went away to the boundary and because it was a little bit sort of slow bounce, I felt down the ground quite hard, sometimes just on the day it just feels like the right option and you just keep sticking to it and it worked for me today. (No captaincy burden) I don't know. It's just different isn't it? I think having that responsibility is always really good for me with the bats, so it's just finding that mindset that works for me and then trying to get the best out of myself and that's what I'm trying to find. I've seen a slightly different role and yeah, trying to find it quite well which is nice. They're obviously a quality team that are doing really well in this competition and a good chance for us to test ourselves against the best team in the world. So, yeah, confidence high, we've qualified and ultimately we want to get towards the top end of the table come the semi-finals.

Lowest win-margins for ENG-W in WC
3 runs vs IND-W, Finchampstead, 1993
3 runs vs AUS-W, Bristol, 2017
4 runs vs IND-W, Indore, 2025
7 runs vs SA-W, Hyderabad (Deccan), 1997
9 runs vs IND-W, Lord’s, 2017 Final

India chasing 200-plus in Women’s WC: 10 matches, 10 defeats

This was the first time they crossed 250 in a WC run-chase, surpassing 240/9 against the same opponent at Brabourne in 2013.

This is also India’s second-highest WC total without an individual hundred, after their 330 all-out in Vizag last Sunday.

22:17 Local Time, 16:47 GMT, 22:17 IST: Wow what scenes out there. India have been left shellshocked with the match slipping out of their hands out of nowhere. Smriti Mandhana was in cruise control, Harmanpreet looked like a captain on a mission, Deepti came firing out of the blocks. They seemed set to make history with their highest-ever successful chase in ODIs. Instead, what they're left with is heartbreak along with a third defeat on the bounce. How did it all go so wrong and where? Well, it didn't just finish with Linsey Smith's final over, it also started with her when she dismissed Mandhana who had a rush of blood in the 42nd over. Was a faultless knock up until that point but her dismissal brought England back into the game and India - who were a batter short today - just couldn't see it home.

Smith bowling from over the wicket here

Linsey Smith, the left-arm spinner, to bowl the final over. 14 to defend.