Cardiff: Half-centuries from opener Amy Jones and skipper Nat Skiver-Friend, followed by a combined bowling effort, saw England beat India by five runs in their 2026 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup warm-up match at the Sophia Gardens on Wednesday.
India captain Harmanpreet Kaur’s decision to field first backfired as the hosts amassed a mammoth total of 171/6 in their 20 overs with a 70-run second-wicket partnership between Jones and Skiver-Friend.
However, England started to unravel their innings as they lost opener Danny Wyatt-Hodge (three) in the fourth over with just 27 runs to spare.
Jones, who dominated the opening stand, then anchored England’s batting line-up with skipper Skiver-Friend until he fell to Shafali Verma in the 13th over. He returned after top-scoring for the home side with a blistering 64 off 45 balls with 8 fours.
The England skipper shared brief partnerships with Alice Capesey (two) and Freya Kemp (seven) before scoring 31 runs with bowling all-rounder Danny Gibson.
Skiver-Friend was dismissed by Sreyanka Patil in the last over after scoring 57 runs off 45 balls with 8 fours, while Gibson batted till the end and returned with an unbeaten 30 off 12 balls with 4 fours and a six.
Patil was India’s best bowler with 2 wickets conceding 29 runs in his four overs while Radha Yadav, Sri Sarani, Renuka Singh and Verma took one each.
Chasing a tough target of 172 runs, India scored 166 runs in 19.5 overs despite a brilliant half-century from wicketkeeper Richa Ghosh.
With India reeling at 63/4 after skipper Kaur’s dismissal on the first delivery of the 10th over, Ghosh, who came out to bat at No. 6, counter-attacked the England bowlers and kept the visitors in the hunt until he was dismissed on the fourth delivery of the last over.
With India needing six off two balls, Linsey Smith was stumped outside and smashed 68 off 36 balls with nine fours and two sixes.
Apart from him, no other Indian bowler broke the 20-run barrier against an England bowling attack led by Smith, who took 3 wickets but came at a high price as he conceded 42 runs in his 3.5 overs, while Charlie Dean, Tilly Gardeen-Coleman and Gibson claimed 2 wickets each.