England gunned down

Jenny Gunn and Charlotte Edwards smile for the cameras

England's Jenny Gunn is writing a diary for ecb.co.uk during the quadrangular World Series in India this winter. Follow her exclusively here on ecb.co.uk

On February 21 we had our first game of the tournament against India. Lottie (Charlotte Edwards) won the toss and we chose to field first. India were very cautious at the start scoring 40 off the first 15 overs.

I bowled nine overs straight through, which was quite hard work in the heat. Towards the middle of their innings they upped the rate. Needing a wicket, we finally got a break-through when Beth (Morgan) took the run out of Sharma.

Although we weren't taking wickets we managed to bring back the run rate. India finished on 231-6 with Isa claiming 2-49 (10) with the other wickets being shared around.

After the break, we got off to a good start before losing Lor (Newton) for 21. We lost wickets at regular intervals but Shaggy (Caroline Atkins) stayed at the crease and scored a solid 54.

We got behind the rate but some good hitting at the end from Boggy (Laura Marsh) saw us come close, falling short by just 18 runs.

February 23 was the date for our second game against New Zealand. We won the toss and chose to field again.

Ebony Rainford-Brent

Boggy had not recovered in time from a thigh strain, which gave Ebony (Rainford-Brent) the opportunity to make her debut.

I got hit a bit at the start but Ebony managed to get a break-through for her first international wicket. (Her celebrations were more controlled this time!)

We clawed our way back with some good bowling and some sharp fielding. I have never seen a display of such clean and consistent hitting in women's cricket as I did at the end of the New Zealand innings. They scored 104 off their final ten overs.

Although we bowled in our areas the boundaries were small enough for them to keep hitting sixes. They set a total of 291, which we still thought was gettable on that pitch.

We got off to the worst possible start losing Shaggy first ball caught at slip. Sarah (Taylor) came in at four to try and take advantage of the power plays and her and Tails (Claire Taylor) put on a good partnership of around 100. They were making batting look very easy before a misunderstanding led to Sarah being run out for 41.

Lottie came in and put another good partnership together. Tails made 50 before getting an outside edge that just lobbed up to the keeper. I was moved down the order as I was sick after lunch, so I moved from 6 to 8. Lyd (Greenway) came in and scored some quick runs along with Beth whilst Lottie was going well at the other end.

I came to the crease needing around 50 off the last nine overs. Lottie finally went for 89 and we ended up with 271 falling 19 runs short this time. We were all gutted to get so close to their huge total and lose again.

On February 24 we were scheduled to have training. A few people decided to have a hit but most of us just wanted to get out of the hotel so decided to go to the ground and have a football match.

It was a good way to take our minds off cricket and it was all good fun even if it was still competitive (mainly Batesy)! It went down to penalties and after a dodgy decision by the ref saw an argument between Batesy and Neil Rider, our manager, (each of the goalkeepers) about the illegality of the goal.

Anyway we ended up losing and Batesy was fuming. All in all it was a fun game with lots of banter and to finish it all off we had a team sing-a-long to "whip crack away."