Danni Wyatt proves her point and Smriti Mandhana shines once more... ENGLAND V INDIA TALKING POINTS

NICK FRIEND AT CHELMSFORD looks back on the key moments from the final match of the multiformat series between England and India, which gave the hosts an overall series victory

Kudos to Danni Wyatt

Well played, Danni Wyatt. It would be exaggerating the point to describe tonight as career-defining for the England opener, but it would perhaps be fairer to suggest that a failure at Chelmsford might have seen her out of the next squad to be named when New Zealand touch down in September. For two years now, runs have been in short supply: in 2020, when she featured in 12 T20Is, she averaged just 11.25. More worryingly, she appeared easy to get at for new-ball bowlers, with an evident weakness to exploit.

But speaking to The Cricketer at the end of last year, England head coach Lisa Keightley offered her sympathy to Wyatt, who – by her own admission – struggled with the restrictions of bubble life.

“I think it’s harder for extroverts,” said Keightley. “I look at someone like Danni Wyatt. She loves interacting and seeing new people and having a chat.” Ultimately, she left England’s camp for personal reasons before the end of the five-match T20I series against West Indies in the confines of Derbyshire’s Incora County Ground. A year to forget.

And so, fair play to her for emerging in the Chelmsford twilight with a challenging chase on her hands and taking the bull by the horns. She was more aggressive than earlier in this series, as if she  acknowledged the importance of being true to herself in a game of such personal importance, charging the spinners early and whacking them over mid-off. When India’s bowlers erred too full, she managed on several occasions to jam her bat down and squeeze them behind point for four.

All this, having been left out of the ODI leg of the series at the expense of Lauren Winfield-Hill, and with an increasing wave of support for the inclusion of Emma Lamb, who continues to tear up the domestic game. But to ignore the noise is half the job of an elite athlete; it is one of the great separators – talent aside, of course – between them, the pros, and us, the amateurs and spectators.

This was the third time that Wyatt had passed 75 in a T20I chase – no other female player has scaled those heights more than once.

With 13 to seal a series victory and just two overs remaining, she slog-swept Deepti Sharma for a towering six. Heather Knight walked down towards her and exchanged a punch of gloves. It was more than your average glove-punch, though; it was an appreciation from a captain to a friend and teammate under pressure for her place, but fighting back in the very best way possible. Far from the difficult entrapment of bubble life, this was a big-game player back on the big stage, batting with a swagger in front of a crowd at a ground that so often has brought out the best of England.

^{Chelmsford looked a picture on Wednesday night}

Mandhana's world

Often in the last month, the only thing stopping Smriti Mandhana was herself. There are few players in the women’s game more pleasing on the eye than the left-hander, who has looked in pretty decent touch throughout, only to find ways of getting out once well set. Only once – in the second innings of the one-off Test – did her wicket fall in single figures.

And for all the praise and attention thrown the way of Shafali Verma – a swashbuckling, fearless teenage gift to the game – Mandhana ended the tour as the leading run-scorer on either side across all three formats. At 24, the future is hers as much as it is Verma’s.

Here, on a true pitch that encouraged her brand of exquisite stroke-play from the outset, she drove immaculately and stroked Freya Davies over long-off for a quite glorious six that was the highlight of a technically flawless 70. Plenty of cricket has been played since Mandhana began this series in similar fashion by making 78 in the drawn Test, but this felt a fitting way to crown her trip.

Not that she’s going far: Charlotte Edwards will have watched on with conflicting thoughts. Mandhana will open the batting in The Hundred for Edwards’ Southern Brave – she will be mightily encouraged, given the withdrawals of several high-quality overseas stars – to have a proven, in-form gun at her disposal.

Really, it would be a major surprise were she not to sit among the top few run-scorers over the next month, with some of the less experienced bowlers in the new competition about to face the biggest challenge of their young careers.

Coping without Verma runs

When India have been at their most competitive over the last month, Verma has been a rare constant; even her cameos – of 15, 44 and 19 – in the ODI series set an aggressive tone that put England briefly on the back foot, even if a pedestrian middle order often handed it swiftly back to Knight’s bowlers.

In a sense, therefore, India could take plenty from Wednesday night and the challenge of posting a significant total without a contribution from their teenage star, even if 153 for 6 ultimately proved insufficient. The same had happened at Northampton, albeit in a chase truncated by poor weather that meant the impact of Verma’s early exit was harder to quantify.

But faced with the loss of her partner in crime, Mandhana took responsibility alongside Harmanpreet Kaur, who had until tonight endured a thoroughly miserable time with the bat, so much so that Mithali Raj and Winfield-Hill – neither of whom featured in the T20Is – ended the multiformat series with more runs. In the end, Kaur averaged just 14.5 across seven games: scant returns for a player – at her best – among the most dangerous around.

Punam Raut, unseen since the first ODI, faced more balls. So, Kaur’s return to something like her most fluent was an overdue relief for Team India when it came: 36 off 26 balls, including one of the shots of the night over long-on.

^{Smriti Mandhana was in fine touch for India, ending the night as the series' leading run-scorer}

India’s summer treat

At times on their monthlong, multiformat tour of England, India’s young players could have been forgiven for painting a bleak mental image of what this country looks like in its wet season, given what had been served up by midsummer. The Test at Bristol began in beach-shorts weather but ended under dank, grey skies, via a day-three curtailment to a depressing, persistent drizzle that probably helped to clinch a draw for the tourists.

In the ODI series that followed, England won at Bristol in a game played out under leaden clouds that concluded shortly before the heavens opened, narrowly outdoing a forecast that had promised a day’s uninterrupted bleakness but – for the series’ sake – mercifully was proven wrong.

Taunton, the scene of the second 50-over instalment, was a picture of beauty: a faultless afternoon that encouraged an excitable, mid-sized audience and a terrific contest built around India’s below-par total and the visitors’ subsequent energetic response with the ball that came close to manufacturing a victory out of very little.

And when their trip around the shires moved on to Worcester, with England’s football team in a quarter-final that would almost exactly coincide with the close of play, India went one better, chasing for the first time in the limited-over leg and coming out on top.

Batted, Danni 👏#ENGvINDpic.twitter.com/xoeogYPDme

— The Cricketer (@TheCricketerMag) July 14, 2021

Mithali Raj, her batting style questioned throughout, spoke at the post-match presentation with an air of satisfied vindication. But even there at New Road, part-ground, part-floodplain, a game-ruining thunderstorm had been predicted but never came.

Onto the T20Is and, you guessed it, more threat of rain – this time justified. England were well ahead in Northampton by the time it lashed down, though not before Harleen Deol had lit up the series with a generational piece of outfielding that – immaterial of the result – went as viral as it ought to have done. And then, summer arrived. Hove – European Championship final day – was the perfect afternoon by the sea.

For England, the series should have ended there as a meaningful contest, only for India to complete a late fightback, though not without plentiful assistance from a poor, careless collapse. And so, to Chelmsford: England’s fortress until Australia – led by a Meg Lanning hundred – breached that cloak of invincibility in 2019. This was a first trip back for Knight’s side, and they were greeted by the beginnings of an apparent heatwave. Summer, finally.