England v India: women’s T20 international – live!

3rd over: India 26-0 (Mandhana 7, Verma 18) Sophie Ecclestone comes on with her left-arm orthodox spin. She often bowls early in matches with the field up, but it’ll still be a method of tempting Verma, who likes to hit spin. And she does exactly that! First ball, gets down low and flogs a slog-sweep over midwicket, bouncing away for four. She has her own way of playing that shot, coming into it with her bat almost vertical before it becomes horizontal, and then a flick of the wrists as well that emphasises her action of fetching the ball from whatever line it happens to be on, before sending it in the same direction each time. Two balls later, she goes again, for six this time! Even better purchase on the same shot and sends it into the seats.

2nd over: India 15-0 (Mandhana 7, Verma 8) Katherine Brunt has the new ball from the other end, and charges in as she’s done since 2005. (Or 2004 in Tests, but you get my drift.) Both Indian batters use her pace cleverly though, reaching out and steering fine through deep third for four. Mandhana does it first, then when Verma gets her chance she utterly loves it, a beaming smile on her face after she reaches wide and gets more of a nick than she intended, but gets the four she wanted. She has had quite the battle with Brunt through this whole series across formats, and it’s been great viewing.

1st over: India 4-0 (Mandhana 2, Verma 2) Nat Sciver is taking the new ball in the absence of Anya Shrubsole, an all-round seamer doing the job in place of England’s new-ball swing specialist. She bowls a tidy line, and all four singles in the over are run down to deep third.

India
Shafali Verma
Smriti Mandhana
Harleen Deol
Harmanpreet Kaur *
Deepti Sharma
Richa Ghosh +
Sneh Rana
Arundhati Reddy
Shikha Pandey
Radha Yadav
Poonam Yadav

England
Tammy Beaumont
Danni Wyatt
Natalie Sciver
Heather Knight *
Amy Jones +
Sophia Dunkley
Katherine Brunt
Sophie Ecclestone
Sarah Glenn
Mady Villiers
Freya Davies

Choosing to chase, as per conventional wisdom in T20 cricket, is no surprise. We’re watching this match from Hove, where the forecast says there might be some rain this evening but it should be after we’ve got the match finished. Here’s hoping.

Here is that catch, in multiple slow-motion replays, if you want to get your head around the physics. It’s a little bit Simone Biles in that respect.

Or here it is with commentary from a stunned Mark Butcher.