Alice Capsey inspired England to the highest successful run chase in women’s T20 history on these shores to complete a series victory over India in Taunton.
Supported by the brilliant Heather Knight, Capsey plundered 82 runs off 42 balls in a destructive innings that included nine fours and three sixes as the hosts clinched the decider by six wickets with nine balls remaining.
She eventually fell to Arundhati Reddy with England just 13 runs short of the 180 set by India, who are among their title rivals at the forthcoming home World Cup.
Knight was also outstanding as she amassed 70 runs off 42 balls with their partnership of 137 rescuing England after they lost their first three wickets for 38 runs.
Linsey Smith and Charlie Dean struck early to remove India’s openers, but the middle order rallied superbly to set a tricky total.
Captain Harmanpreet Kaur led the way by compiling 56 runs from 40 balls, including seven fours.
There were also solid contributions from Yastika Bhatia, Jemimah Rodrigues and Deepti Sharma with Bhatia scoring rapidly to ignite the fightback after the losses at the top of the order.
The innings ended with Sophie Ecclestone missing the easiest of run-outs with Richa Ghosh stranded, but her throw from two metres missed the stumps.
Lauren Bell was the pick of England’s bowlers after finishing with two for 36 while Eccleston had run out Bhatia earlier in the innings.
England faced the second highest T20 run chase in their history and in only the second over they were a wicket down after Danni Wyatt-Hodge forced a shot and was bowled by Kranti Gaud.
Sophia Dunkley and Amy Jones also went cheaply soon after, but Capsey began flaying the Indian attack right from the start and found the perfect foil in Knight.
They smashed 19 fours between them and 22 boundaries in total to provide England with the perfect confidence booster heading into their World Cup opener against Sri Lanka on June 12.
