England dominate, Beaumont shows the way and India's sluggishness proves costly... ENGLAND V INDIA TALKING POINTS

NICK FRIEND AT BRISTOL looks back on the key moments from England's eight-wicket win over India in the first ODI of the three-match series

Bright and breezy

It was short and sweet from Shafali Verma this time around. Back at the scene of a Test debut that featured half centuries in each innings, she was unable to continue that run of form on the occasion of her ODI bow.

She had started brightly enough, whipping Anya Shrubsole and Katherine Brunt between midwicket and mid-on for a pair of gloriously timed boundaries, before giving herself room to guide Brunt past backward point as an individual battle between one of the game’s all-time greats and one of its new generation continued to tick along as an intriguing subplot to this multiformat series.

For all she tried, Brunt couldn’t get the better of Verma in the Test with the ball, although she played her part in her second innings dismissal with a sensational catch running around from long on. But you always sensed that she was making it her mission to find a means of dominating the teenager.

And so, her delight was evident when Verma miscued a pull shot to be caught in the ring for just 15. It was typically enterprising while it lasted, and those who criticised her over-exuberance were perhaps neglecting to consider that this was much the same way as she had faced up to the red ball, latching onto anything in her arc and punching with a nonchalant ease when any width was offered up.

England latched onto this theory as the Test wore on and Brunt exploited it once again on Sunday; the short delivery might just be the way to target the 17-year-old, given her propensity to stay legside of the ball. It meant that she was in no position to play the shot – an approach they would do well to replicate over the next five games, especially when the T20Is come around. Given the trajectory of Verma’s career thus far, however, it would be little surprise were she to have learned to combat that weakness by the time these teams meet next at Taunton on Wednesday.

^{Mithali Raj finally fell for 72 to Sophie Ecclestone}

Limping along

Often, the scorecard doesn’t tell the full story. And as Mithali Raj drifted to 72 off 108 deliveries, that was the case here. Don’t be fooled necessarily by the way in which she had begun to build her strike-rate back up as her innings wore on.

Raj reached her half century in 95 deliveries, struggling to rotate the strike initially and not showing any particular urgency against a side that was always likely to highlight the shortcomings of her strategy later on. It would not be unfair to suggest that her approach played some part in the dismissals of Punam Raut and Harmanpreet Kaur, both of whom perished while trying to hit over the top, conscious that India’s ante needed upping. At the fall of Raut’s wicket, Raj had used up 56 balls for 21.

All this after Verma’s trio of early boundaries had at least provided some early momentum. From 23 without loss in the fifth over, however, India added their next 77 runs – to reach three figures – in 169 deliveries. In total, India faced 181 dot-balls – “something we need to address by the next game,” admitted Raj afterwards.

Yet, the way in which Raj herself caught up as her innings progressed was proof that the ability remains in the veteran captain, whose fifty was the 56th in her ODI career. That alone should provide India with some optimism. The only frustration was that she couldn’t have flicked the switch earlier, notwithstanding the fact that wickets fell around her: Raj made her last 51 runs off 52 balls without need for much risk-taking.

She was not the solitary offender, of course: it is a wider issue with India’s batting line-up that their middle order is full of slow starters – at the other end, Raut was hardly motoring. It was hard not to wonder whether there might be a place for Jemimah Rodrigues in the tourists’ side; the 20-year-old knows conditions in England from her Kia Super League days and would surely bring a more proactive way of playing through the middle overs that England – led by Sophie Ecclestone – dominated.

^{Tammy Beaumont was untroubled in making her fourth successive ODI fifty}

Beaumont shows the way…

England showed India the way in response, as it always seemed likely they would do once a pedestrian first innings had come to a close. And as so often, they were led by Tammy Beaumont, a supreme ODI cricketer. “I thought it was a good wicket, our bowlers did a fantastic job to keep them to that score,” she reflected at the close. “Once you got in it was really nice to bat on.”

This was her fourth successive half century – a 20th score of fifty or more in her ODI career – continuing a fine run of form that began over the winter in New Zealand when she was dismissed just once. Not that Beaumont believes in form these days: she spoke afterwards of her conversations with team psychologist Phoebe Sanders and the belief she has picked up in recent years as an established international cricketer than the game is played out far more in the mind than on the grass, with her role in an attacking top six centred around batting through the innings.

Ahead of England’s winter in New Zealand, Beaumont told The Cricketer: “I have a problem with the word ‘form’. For me, quite often I find that my technique is good, so I’m not really working on anything technical anymore. Occasionally, a few things might crop in and that is maybe why I don’t do as well for a little period. But actually, for me, I see my ‘form’ as a big mental thing.

“Quite often I’ll be playing well, but it’s whether I’m mentally sharp enough that in a game I’m not going to give my wicket away. That’s where I’m at now. Where I am with my mental skills is probably more important for me than how my technique is working.

“Particularly in 50-over cricket, if you’re not playing that well, you can just about get away with it if you get past the new ball. Whereas actually, if you’re mentally switched on, that’s when you don’t get 20, but you get 50 or 100.”

England v India: First ODI player ratings

That was the case here: she was dominant and assertive, running well between the wickets and hitting all around the ground in a knock of supreme authority.

Alongside her initially was Lauren Winfield-Hill, with the pair rekindling a 50-over partnership that won England the 2017 World Cup, following the decision to drop Danni Wyatt from the squad. She and Heather Knight both fell after getting starts, at which point Nat Sciver came to join Beaumont.

Sciver looked in rich touch, hitting straight with an effortless power in a stand that took the game away from the visitors once and for all.

Plenty to ponder for India’s thinktank, with their hosts – Verma apart – playing a far more aggressive brand of 50-over cricket, epitomised by the Beaumont-Sciver partnership that ensured England raced home with 91 balls unused.