International T20 England v India
By Grockle
June 2 2026
Taunton hosts Women's International cricket once more in a domestic season. Engl;and face India in the third T20 with the series all square and this one being the decider. We welcome back home three of our players in Heather Knight, Dani Gibson and Charlie Dean who will captain her country tonight. Also we welcome back Lauren Filer after her move to Durham for the 2025 season. The weather will not be as fiery as a couple of weeks ago but the rain should stay away and the sun has been out.
Women's International T20 England v India Tuesday 2 June 2026 @ Taunton
We welcome International cricket to Somerset again as the final T20 of the 3 match series comes to Taunton with the situation being all square after 2. Somerset's Charlie Dean will captain her country tonight and should be joined in the side by the other 2 of our trio in Heather Knight and Dani Gibson. Lauren Filer is also in the squad so we may have all four play.
England have won the toss and will bowl first with an unchanged side from the one in Bristol at the last game. India have made 1 change to their line-up.
The side therefore is
Sophia Dunkley, Danni Wyatt-Hodge, Amy Jones (wk), Alice Capsey, Heather Knight, Freya Kemp, Dani Gibson, Charlie Dean (c), Sophie Ecclestone, Lyndsey Smith, Lauren Bell
The Indian opposition is;
Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (wk), Deepti Sharma, Arundhati Reddy, Kranti Gaud, Sree Charani, Nandni Sharma
The first two Indian bats take the field at 6:30 with Lauren Bell opening from the River end. They take 10 from the first. Lynsey Smith takes the second with the first spin of the game. Mandhana hits the first boundary in anger off her second ball. They take a single and Verma gets one away to the CA Scoreboard buit the next one she gets a top edge to and finds Charlie Dean's hands and India are 19 for 1 with Verma gone for 11. In comes Bhatia and she takes 8 from Bell's second to get her account off and running. The visitors are moving at 10 an over as Charlie Dean brings herself on to try and put the brakes on in the fourth. Her first is classically driven for four but she comes' back at the end of the over and has Mandhana in front. India review but it is upheld and she goes for 8 from 9 at 36. In comes Rodrigues at number 4 and on comes Sophie Ecclestone from the River for over number 5.
The Indian 50 arrives from the bowling of Dean in the sixth off 34 balls and the 'Powerplay' is completed with the Indians moving on to 57 with a straight four to the MT Pavilion.
Dani Gibson comes on for the 7th over and Sophie runs out Bhartia with a direct hit and she is out for 32 from 18 at 60 for 3. The Indian Skipper Kaur is the next in. Someone told us that Ecclestone can't field but she is the first fielder this season at Taunton to hit the stumps at the proper time. It looks like she did it all the time.
Ecclestone changes ends to the pavilion for the 8th at 64 for 3. The news for the club is that the ticket sales for tonight have ticked over the 6,000 point - though I'm not sure how much of that comes the club's way.
As we start the 10th the visitors move into the 80s so they are maintaining that 9/10 an over scoring rate as Smith returns to the MT. The drinks break arrives at 94 for 3 with Rodrigues on 24 and Kaur on 16.
Bell starts the second phase from the River and an England fielder hits the stumps at the River once more though the bat is in this time. The 100 arrives in the 11th from a hooked boundary to the Gimblett from Rodrigues. She comes up the wicket to the next one but Bell changes her length and the bat is through the stroke at a different level, misses it and is bowled for 29 from 19 balls at 100.
The first of the two Sharmas (Deepti) is next in and she'll face Dean with the keeper standing up for this over. Then Sophie goes back to the River for the 13th and the score moves to 113 with Gibson taking the 14th. The run rate has fallen slightly from the first half of this innings, though the Indian bats aren't completely hobbled and are still finding the rope, just less frequently.
At te end of Smith's 15th India have moved on to 132 for 4 with Sharma on to 12 and skipper Kaur has moved to 34. Deepti used to get runs here when she played for the Storm as well. They start to look to push it, giving the England Boss some tap in the 16th. 140 with 4 to go.
Dani will bowl out with the 17th. Presently she has 26 to her name without a victim. The 150 arrives at the end of the over with a straight 4 - it also brings up the 50 partnership between these two at the same time. The captain has moved to 47 while Sharma has 19. Gibson ends with 0 for 38 from her 4.
The Indians are getting away a bit as Smith bowls out with the 18th which she starts with 3 over 1 for 36. The English could do with breaking this partnership. She finishes with 1 for 40 at 161 for 4 with 12 balls to go.
The penultimate over will bowl out Bell, presently on 1 for 29. A run out chance is missed from the first ball, the ball coming in was not close enough to the stumps and the chance goes begging. England could have done with that. The 4th ball gets the breakthrough though as Sharmagets one wrong and lobs it one handed to Mid On and the hands of Dean for 32 at 167 for 5. The new bat is Ghosh who pinches the strike to keep her captain presently stranded on 49. Ecclestone takes the last and Ghosh gives the strike back, The skipper cuts the ball to the Somerset boundary to add a 7th four to her 53 from 38. The last ball is an easy run out... which Sophie misses from 10 feet and they run a second. The best fielding of the innings and the worst from the same player means India finish on 180 but with 5 down. England need 181 to take the series.
The Reply
Dunkley and Wyatt-Hodge start the England charge against Reddy from the MT. 3 for 0 after the first and they are behind the RRR as they face Gaud from the River. This Indian bowler is speedy as Dunkley finds out as her outside edge flies into a fielding gap, though she knew very little about it. The first boundary comes however, when she gets back on strike because if you get anything on a pace bowler's delivery, it will fly to the boundary as well. But when she gets it straight Wyatt-Hodge does not have an answer and she is bowled 'neck and crop' for 5 from 5 and England are 14 for 1 at the end of the first. In comes Amy Jones to face Reddy's second and the third of the innings.
If you do not already have an account Click here to Register.
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2026:06:05:10:48:24 by Grockle.
Heather Knight, Dani Gibson and Charlie Dean are all up to show their home fans what they are missing in our domestic Blast campaign (which is going pretty well without them at the moment) as England take on the visitors in Taunton. In fact Charlie will captain the side in this 'winner takes all' decider as the 3 match series stands at 1 -1 at the moment.
Match Preview
The info suggests the side will be picked from the following England squad members
Amy Jones (wk), Sophia Dunkley, Danielle Wyatt Hodge, Heather Knight, Danielle Gibson, Freya Kemp. Maia Bouchier, Alice Capsey, Charlotte Dean (c), Lauren Bell, Tilly Corteen Coleman, Sophie Ecclestone, Lauren Filer, Linsey Smith, Issy Wong
Which also means a return to the County Ground for Lauren Filer after her move to Durham for the start of the "professional" Tier 1 era in 2025,
Hopefully the weather will not interrupt an we will have a good crowd for the game.
The weather has taken a turn for the better and it looks like it will be an uninterrupted game
Heather and Alice Capsey batted brilliantly for England and took a slightly shaky start by the throat and brought England to a fine win.
Lots of noisy entertainment in the carpark plus various food outlets. Stewarding was friendly although having eught security guards on the pitch before the start seemed like overkill!
I enjoyed the game itself. There is no doubt that the women's level of playing has come on a lot in a relatively short space of time, fielding and batting in particular. However, I didn't think that either team bowled well last night and that was perhaps the reason for the high scoring. Nevertheless, it was an entertaining evening.
As Grockle has already noted, there did seem to be an awful lot of bib wearers - suppliers, media, etc. And yet they were not able to stop people getting up and moving about during overs - a problem at cricket now more generally, admittedly. It was ironic that one of the security guys caused a hold up by marching along behind the bowler's arm at one point. I'm not sure they were all familiar with cricket or Taunton!
*when I was their age, the main discussion girls were expected to have about cricket is whether they were on sandwich, sausage roll or cake duty fir tea.