Dani Hazell and Sophie Ecclestone both recorded their best bowling performances in an ODI as England rolled India for 113 and went on to win by eight wickets in the second ODI at Nagpur.
The 18-year-old Ecclestone – whose previous best came in the first match of the series on Friday – took 4-14 as well as taking a catch and effecting a run-out.
Hazell was similarly impressive, bowling with exquisite control to take 4-32 and remove three of India’s top four.
Mithali Raj was arguably her most eye-catching dismissal: bowled through the gate by a delivery that spun sharply from outside off stump. The Durham off-spinner celebrated her wickets in her own passionate and inimitable style.
The pair’s eight wickets – as well as one for Alex Hartley and the Ecclestone run-out – saw India slip from 31/0 and then 80/4 to their eventual total, only Smriti Mandhana and Deepti Sharma looked comfortable.
England were tasked with chasing 114 for the win and they did it eight wickets down, Tammy Beaumont and Heather Knight unbeaten on 39 and 26 respectively.
It was a different result to Friday and a very different England performance. It started differently as well with Heather Knight back in the side after missing England’s last two matches with injury.
She replaced the unlucky Alice Davidson-Richards, who performed well on her ODI debut on Friday.
The toss went against Knight but that didn’t hold her side back for too long. Anya Shrubsole and Nat Sciver were tight with the new ball and Mandhana and Devika Vaidya weren’t able to get away.
That set the platform for England’s slow bowlers to come in and do their thing and they didn’t disappoint. The pitch spun less than in Friday’s fixture but the turn and bounce was more variable, making a batter’s life very uncomfortable.
Hazell was the first to strike, picking up Vaidya caught behind then clean-bowling Mithali Raj. Her third wicket was a slightly less impressive delivery – Harmanpreet Kaur clothing a full toss to mid-on, cue a slightly more embarrassed reaction from the bowler.
Given the nature of Hazell’s second wicket it was a case of going from the sublime to the slightly less sublime.
Ecclestone then got involved, clean-bowling Veda Krisnamurthy and repeating the feat for the big wicket of Mandhana.
Her departure took the wind out of Indian sails and it became something of a procession, Pooja Vastrakar and Sushma Verma both departing with the score still in the 80s.
Julan Ghoswami became the eighth wicket to fall and the fourth to Hazell – Amy Jones with some smart work down the leg-side to complete the stumping.
Poonam Yadav was trapped in front for Ecclestone’s fourth before Hartley completed the innings, the catch fittingly taken by Hazell.
England encountered few problems in the chase, losing just Danni Wyatt and Amy Jones and reaching the target with 22 overs to spare.
It was a much-improved effort from Mark Robinson and Heather Knight’s side and it leaves the series beautifully poised at 1-1. The two sides will reconvene at the same venue on Thursday for a winner-takes-all clash.