Pacer Renuka takes maiden fifer as India restrict England to 151/7

Gqeberha: Medium pacer Renuka Singh registered her best bowling figures, a five-for, to help India restrict England to 151 for seven in an ICC Women’s T20 World Cup match here on Saturday.

Renuka (5/15) did the early damage picking up the first three wickets to peg England back and then returned to take two more wickets towards the fag end of the innings.

India made a perfect start after opting to bowl as Renuka induced a faint outside edge from Danni Wyatt and Richha Ghosh gleefully accepted the chance in the third delivery of the day.

Renuka was on fire as she accounted for two more English batters in her next two overs to hand India the upper hand after skipper Harmanpreet Kaur won the toss and elected to bowl.

Renuka first cleaned up Alice Capsey in the third over and then came back to disturb the woodwork of Sophie Dunkley in her next over as England slumped to 29 for 3 in 4.4 overs.

Thereafter, Nat Sciver-Brunt and skipper Heather Knight (28) took the attack to the opposition and played aggressively.

The duo shared a 51-run stand off just 38 balls to give some impetus to England’s innings.

But just when the partnership was looking threatening, Shikha Pandey broke the stand picking up her first wicket since October 2021.

It was a lucky breakthrough for Pandey as Knight picked out Shafali Verma in the covers — the only fielder inside the circle — from a juicy full toss outside off.

Nat Sciver did all the hard work en route her 42-ball 50 but gave away her wicket when England needed her the most, caught by Smriti Mandhana at short third man off Deepti Sharma’s bowling as the batter went for a reverse sweep, only to miscue it.

In the final over of England’s innings, Renuka accounted for Amy Jones (40 off 27) and Katherine Sciver-Brunt to record her best T20I bowling figures.