England v India: second women’s T20 international – live | England women’s cricket team

Capsey licks her lips at a half volley but doesn’t nail it and instead loses her off stump.

17th over: England 123-4 (Capsey 28, Kemp 7) Kemp is off the mark with a cover drive for four, the catalyst to fast-foward the innings? Eight from the over.

Knight is foxed by Charani, dollies a leading edge back into her palms like an airy fairy cake straight out of the baking tray.

16th over: England 115-3 (Capsey 27, Knight 18) Patil is on the money – just five from the over.

And an email from Stephen Nichols – hello!:

“I think we’ve picked our best available team for this match, and now is the right time to do that. The squad rotation and people management we’ve seen this summer so far has been very wise – we’ve found out that Linsey Smith is missed greatly if not playing, and the backup players are decent, but this is our best XI.

“If NSB is fit for the World Cup, who does she replace? And if she does play, we’ll expect her to provide match-winning batting, 4 overs of tight seam bowling, AND the captaincy? The team has warmed up for the World Cup under Charlie Dean – keeping her as captain for the tournament would retain what is working well, and would allow Nat just to bat. What does everyone else think?”

Interesting! I’m not sure NSB is going to be fit to bowl actually, at least to start with, in which case the juggling of captaincy and batting should be ok.

15th over: England 110-3 (Capsey 24, Knight 16) A beautiful slower ball from Nandni Sharma to start the over. Athers purrs appreciatively “it’s good for two reasons, the arm comes over at the same place so it is difficult to pick, and she also gets a lot of overspin on the ball.” Two singles, and then Knight sweeps over her shoulder for four down to deep fine leg. Good running from Knight and Capsey. Ten from the over.

14th over: England 100-3 (Capsey 22, Knight 8) A reverse-sweeping Capsey starts Deepti’s over with a four, and Knight follows four balls later, reaching forward with a stylish tweak of the wrists.

13th over: England 88-3 (Capsey 15, Knight 2) A second important wicket for Charani – Jones had looked in nice touch. In marches Heather Knight, who suddenly has players breathing down her neck for that number five spot. Four singles from the over.

Shuffles legside, looks handsome, but Harmanpreet is waiting.

12th over: England 84-2 (Jones 28, Capsey 14) Deepti Sharma takes off her wide-brimmed sunhat, but keeps her sunglasses, as she rolls in for her third over. She’s brought down her speeds to suit the slow pitch – the TV has her bowling in the low 40smph. Capsey glides two past the diving cover, then Jones reverse-sweeps four.

11th over: England 75-2 (Jones 22, Capsey 11) Neat and tidy from Reddy and just four singles from the over.

10th over: England 71-2 (Jones 20, Capsey 9) Time for drinks at the half-way point of England’s innings. They’ve picked things up nicely after a sedentary start, and Capsey has already clubbed four through the covers for four.

9th over: England 62-2 (Jones 18, Capsey 2) Jones is lucky to survive a top-edge that drops just out of reach, and a real blow for England to lose the impetus that DWH always brings.

Wyatt-Hodge gives herself room and slashes at Charani, but a cracking catch by Mandhana at short third – who loses her sunglass as she hits the deck– puts a full stop to a promising innings.

8th over: England 56-1 (Jones 14, Wyatt-Hodge 29) Clever play from Jones, who sweeps Deepti Sharma into the gap and a chasing, diving, Verma can’t catch it before it huffs over the rope. Good running between the wickets from these two.

7th over: England 47-1 (Jones 8, Wyatt-Hodge 25) Wyatt-Hodge laughs in the face of broken nights, chips Patil up and over for four. Now Jones, shuffle, crack, like a woman dancing to avoid bees, goes similarly to the mid-off rope. 12 from the over.

6th over: England 35-1 (Jones 2, Wyatt-Hodge 20) Time for some Charani for the last over of the power play. Wyatt-Hodge picks up one gorgeous four, over extra cover with dancing feet, and a handful of singles to polish things off. Advantage India.

5th over: England 28-1 (Jones 1, Wyatt-Hodge 14) No. 3 Jones is off the mark immediately with a single, then DWH cuts stylishly for four, into the grass and away.

A sloth-like finger of doom from the umpire sends Dunkley on her way after she zigzags her body to cut, whispers an edge and is very neatly caught behind.

4th over: England 21-0 (Dunkley 10, Wyatt-Hodge 9) Time for spin already, with Shreyanka Patil. Wyatt-Hodge is eager for runs but can’t quite get enough welly or broad enough bat to reach the rope.

3rd over: England 14-0 (Dunkley 9, Wyatt-Hodge 3) Dunkley picks up the first boundary of the day with a huge yahoo down the ground for six. A couple of singles to complete the over. And England tick along. They might want to turn that tick to a gallop.

2nd over: England 6-0 (Dunkley 2, Wyatt-Hodge 2) Sharma’s first ball is dropped by Rodrigues at point as Dunkley cuts with static feet. She only had to leap a little but somehow let it slip through her fingers, perhaps surprised by the fierceness of the stroke. She waves her hand in apology and Sharma smiles with sad eyes.

1st over: England 2-0 (Dunkley 0, Wyatt-Hodge 0) Reddy with the new ball, running towards the tall white blocks of flats at one end of a full-looking Nevill Ground. Just a couple of wides to start things off.

The flags are waving, the vuvuzelas blowing. Dunkley and Wyatt-Hodge bounce gloves and jog into the middle

Raf Nicholson is tanning her ankles in Bristol and reports lasagne and profiteroles in the press box, “the food of dreams,”

“Gorgeous sunshine. Ground looking busy. England did a special cap presentation earlier to nine year old Evie, who also had a keeping master class from Amy Jones before play. She needs to watch her back because Evie looks pretty good to me .”

Harmanpreet, who was rested for the first T20, returns and fancies the pitch looks dry and so they play the extra spinner, Shreyanka Patil. Bharti Fulmali and Kranti Gaud miss out.

India XI: Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (wk), Deepti Sharma Arundhati Reddy, Shreyanka Patil, Sree Charani, Nandni Sharma.

England have bolstered their batting, with new mum Danni Wyatt Hodge returning. Linsey Smith is also back. Issy Wong and Tilly Corteen-Coleman miss out.

England XI: Sophie Dunkley, Danni Wyatt-Hodge, Amy Jones (wk), Alice Capsey, Heather Knight, Freya Kemp, Dani Gibson, Charlie Dean, Sophie Ecclestone, Linsey Smith, Lauren Bell.

Charlie Dean: “it feels a good day to get out there – it looks a bit of a belter. We were in a brilliant position with both bat and ball at the half way stage, we need to be more ruthless.”

Harmanpreet Kaur: would have batted too. Happy with the team and the balance pre World Cup.

Hello! The World Cup is now less than two weeks away and England have just two games left to primp and preen their strategy. Out-thought and out-bowled by India in the first T20 at Chelmsford, they will want to do better today in Bristol – stand-in captain Charlie Dean pinpointed “leaving ourselves too much to do at the end,” as a flaw to fix.

Play will start at 2.30pmBST, the toss and the teams at 2pm. Do join us.