Komal Zanzad's fiery spell in vain as Heather Knight rescues England XI from early jitters to beat Board President's XI

Mumbai: Left-arm medium-pacer Komal Zanzad impressed with a three-wicket initial burst but Board President’s XI failed to defend their modest score of 154 and lost by two wickets against the visiting England XI in a practise game in Mumbai on Monday. Komal who is yet to play for India but has taken an amazing 9/8 against Haryana in the domestic one-day tournament of the BCCI last season, rocked the visitors with her devastating spell of 3 for 9 in her first six overs at the Wankhede Stadium. [caption id=“attachment_6106861” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Heather Knight. Image credit: Twitter/@englandcricket[/caption] England XI were gasping at 11 for 4 by the fifth over triggered by the triple strike by the Vidarbha captain before Heather Knight, with a steady, unbeaten 64 off 86 balls, lifted the team out of the rut and guided it past the finish line in the 38th over. England’s score read 157 for 8 by the time they got home. Apart from Komal, Reemalaxmi Ekka and spinner Tanuja Kanwer picked up two wickets apiece. Earlier, the local outfit lost wickets in clusters and were bowled out in 49 overs with lower order batswoman Minnu Mani emerging the top scorer with 28 in 57 balls that contained one of the two sixes struck in the innings. The practise game will be followed by three ICC Championship 50-over contests between England and India at this venue on 22, 25 and 28 February. On winning the toss and batting first, the home team got off to a reasonably good start of 27 runs at a good rate before losing two wickets in successive overs. The first to fall was the in-form Smriti Mandhana, who started in aggressive fashion and struck four fours 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 to leave the Board Presidents XI 29 for 2. 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 these players as well as Veda Krishnamurthy and half the side was back with 70 on the board. Bharti Fulmali (23) and wicket keeper R Kalpana, with a painstaking 10 in 33 balls, took the score past 100 before both were packed off in successive balls spread over different overs. The innings got a late boost by Minnu from Kerala, who hit a straight six in her knock before being last out. She also added 29 runs for the eighth wicket with Tanuja and then 14 more with last batswoman 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 Tamsin Beaumont, captain-cum-keeper Sarah Taylor and Natalie Sciver were gobbled up by Komal in her first three overs with some pace and movement, while the wicket of the other opener Amy Jones was grabbed by Reemalaxmi. England’s innings got steadied by a stand of 49 by Heather, 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 for seven before a 39-run stand between the set Heather and Shrubsole (23 with 5 fours) brought them back. Shrubsole was dismissed at 118 when the stand was assuming dangerous proportions. Heather then guided the visitors past the target in the company of Laura Winfield who remained unbeaten on 23.