Second Women's Test, Taunton, day four: India 307 & 98-5 bt England 99 & 305 by five wickets Goswami put England on the slide with two quick wickets |
India captain Mithali Raj guided her team to a tense five-wicket win over England in the second women's Test. Jhulan Goswami's 5-45 gave her match figures of 10-78 and helped bowl out the hosts for 305 after tea in Taunton.
Captain Charlotte Edwards made 105 and Caroline Atkins a pain-staking 68 but the last four wickets fell for eight.
Chasing 98, India had a scare when Holly Colvin took two wickets in two balls to leave them on 74-5 but Raj hit 22 to help seal a 1-0 series triumph.
England began the final day on 205-2, just three runs in arrears, but lost four wickets in adding 60 to their total during the morning.
Goswami struck the vital blow by dismissing Edwards for 105 and Atkins's six and a half-hour show of defiance came to an end when she was lbw to Amita Sharma.
Beth Morgan and Jane Smit stubbornly added 43 vital runs before they fell victim to spinner Nooshin Al Khadeer.
The end was not long in coming thereafter as Goswami won lbw decisions against Laura Marsh and Isa Guha, the former failing to score for the second time in the match.
The tourists made a poor start when Rumeli Dhar gave a return catch to Marsh and when Colvin and Guha struck late on, the game was in the balance.
But Raj held firm and received good support from Reema Malhotra to clinch victory.