Indian women’s cricket team loses final match of England series

The Indian women’s cricket team lost to England by five wickets in the fifth and final game of the ENG-W vs IND-W T20 2025 series at Edgbaston, Birmingham, on Saturday.

Despite the loss, India will head back home with a 3-2 series win, having come into the final game with an unassailable 3-1 lead. This also caps off India’s first-ever bilateral T20 series win against England in women’s cricket history.

They had lost all six of their previous multi-game bilateral series’ in the format against the English. India did win a one-off T20 against England at Derby back in 2006, which was also the first-ever meeting between the two teams in the format.

The match also saw Indian T20 captain Harmapreet Kaur play her 334th international match for India, taking her past former skipper Mithali Raj as the most-capped Indian woman in cricket history.

Sent in to bat first by the hosts, India lost opener Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues early with the scoreboard reading 19/2 midway through the third over.

However, Shafali Verma and Harmanpreet Kaur steadied the ship with a 66-run stand for the third wicket before the Indian captain’s stumps were rattled by Charlie Dean.

Shafali, meanwhile, scored her 11th T20I half-century in just 23 balls, making it the second-quickest ever in the format by any Indian on the heels of Richa Ghosh’s 18-ball fifty against the West Indies last year.

Dean played spoilsport again as she dismissed the Indian opener for 75 after Maia Bouchier took a brilliant catch in the deep to affect the dismissal.

Shafali’s exit derailed the Indian innings for a bit but cameos by Richa (20 off 14), Radha Yadav (14* off 14) and Arundhati Reddy (9* off 5) saw India post a very credible 167/7 in their 20 overs.

England openers Sophia Dunkley and Danni Wyatt-Hodge got the hosts’ chase to a flying start and put up 57/0 on the board in the powerplay overs.

Wyatt-Hodge, making her 300th international appearance for England, raced to her 21st T20I fifty in just 32 deliveries.

Radha Yadav gave India the breakthrough in the 11th over after castling Dunkley four short of her fifty. England were at 101/1 at the time.

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