ENGLAND women have claimed a 3-2 series victory over India after taking the fifth and final one-day international by 29 runs thanks to the Duckworth/Lewis method at Wormsley yesterday. England reached 124 for four off 36 overs, replying to India’s 152 for eight, before rain forced the players off.
Lydia Greenway was unbeaten on 37, England’s top scorer, when the rain struck, soon after the second highest-scorer Arran Brindle had departed for 25 thanks to a run-out.
England got off to a bad start when captain Charlotte Edwards fell for just seven, caught by Marthali Raj off Jhulan Goswami, and after Sarah Taylor followed for 21 and Tammy Beaumont for 19 they were on 64 for three.
But the scoring rate was strong, and Greenway and Brindle did enough to keep them ahead of the D/L rate before the weather closed in, while much of the credit should go to the bowlers, as they had India on the rocks early on.
The tourists were two runs for three wickets in the sixth over after Poonam Raut went for a duck in the first over and Sulakshana Naik and Raj went for one each, all three caught behind by Taylor off a combination of Georgia Elwiss and Katherine Brunt.
When Veda Krishnamurthy went for nine, caught by Elwiss off Brunt, they were on 15 for four, but a 40 from Harmanpreet Kaur and an unbeaten 36 from Reema Malhotra helped them recover.