Left-arm medium-pacer Komal Zanzad impressed with a three-wicket initial burst but Board President’s XI failed to defend a modest score of 154 and lost by two wickets against the visiting England XI in a practice game in Mumbai on Monday.
Zanzad, who took a spell-binding 9/8 against Haryana in Board of Control for Cricket in India’s domestic one-day tournament, rocked the visitors with a devastating spell of 3/9 in her first six overs at the Wankhede Stadium.
England XI were reeling at 11/4 by the fifth over triggered by the triple strike by the Vidarbha captain before Heather Knight’s unbeaten 64 off 86 balls guided it past the finish line in the 38th over.
Apart from Zanzad, Reemalaxmi Ekka and spinner Tanuja Kanwer picked up two wickets apiece. Board President XI lost wickets in clusters with lower order batter Minnu Mani emerging the top scorer with 28.
The practice match will be followed by three ICC Championship 50-over contests between England and India at this venue on February 22, 25 and 28.
After winning the toss and batting first, the hosts got off to a reasonably good start. The first to fall was in-form Smriti Mandhana. The southpaw belted four boundaries before she was caught behind off Anya Shrubsole, the wrecker-in-chief with four wickets to her credit, for 19 off 15 balls.
One-down S Meghana then departed for 1 in the fifth over. A brief revival was orchestrated by opener Priya Punia (15) and Harleen Deol (21) but the visitors struck three quick blows to send back both players as well as Veda Krishnamurthy.
Bharti Fulmali (23) and wicket-keeper R Kalpana, with a painstaking 10 in 33 balls, took the score past 100 before being dismissed in successive balls spread over different overs. Minnu added 29 runs for the eighth wicket with Tanuja and 14 more with Reemalaxmi to take the tally past the 150 mark.
Chasing the modest total, England were rocked by the loss of four quick wickets, three of those by Komal.
Opener Tammy Beaumont, Sarah Taylor and Nat Sciver were dismissed by Komal in her first three overs while the wicket of the other opener Amy Jones was grabbed by Reemalaxmi.
England’s innings was steadied by a stand of 49 by Knight, who looked at ease and also struck nine fours and Danielle Wyatt (22) before a rush of blood cost latter her wicket against spinner Tanuja.
England later slid to 79/7 before a 39-run stand between Knight and Shrubsole brought them back. Shrubsole was dismissed at 118 when the stand was assuming dangerous proportions.
Knight then guided the visitors past the target in the company of Laura Winfield, who was unbeaten on 23.
Brief scores: Board President’s XI 154 in 49 overs (Harleen Deol 21, Bharati Fulmali 23, Minnu Mani 28; Anya Shrubsole 4 for 30, Georgia Elwiss 2 for 20) lost to England XI 157 for 8 in 37.3 overs (Heather Knight 64*, Danielle Wyatt 22; Anya Shrubsole 23, Lauren Winfield 23*; Komal Zanzad 3/14, Reemalaxmi Ekka 2/24, Tanuja Kanwer 2/34) by 2 wickets.
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