Get Ball by Ball Commentary of England Women vs India Women 3rd ODI 2025
The players are out in the middle, Pratika Rawal preparing to face up to Lauren Bell. Slip in place
12.50pm: All right, all right, all right… Still looking quite overcast up at Chester-le-Street, but we should be good to start on time. Sky have just broadcast a chat with Sophie Ecclestone, in which she opens up on the fallout from her non-interview with Alex Hartley during the winter’s Ashes, and how that subsequently affected her – Ecclestone took a short break from the game earlier in the summer, before returning for the India series. We’ll have some of the key lines written up for you in a bit
“Is there a pitch report? Four Indian spinners implies a low score, turning wicket?” Not seen one, Zain. Chester-le-Street is traditionally seam-friendly, though Liam Dawson did take a four-for here for England Men in a T20I against West Indies last month
12.32pm: India won the toss and chose to bat, Harmanpreet Kaur finally calls right in the final game of the tour! India are going with four spinners, so Harmanpreet wants to give them a score to defend. “We’ve played good cricket and we want to continue that,” she says. “Came together [after Lord’s] and had positive discussion.” One change from Lord’s is Radha Yadav coming in to supplement the spin stocks, replacing Arundhati Reddy. Nat Sciver-Brunt is happy enough, as she wanted to bowl. “It’s been a hard-fought series and it comes down to the last game. Happy to be put under pressure and want to step up as a group.” England have brought in Lauren Filer and Alice Davidson-Richards for Em Arlott and Maia Bouchier
England 1 Tammy Beaumont, 2 Amy Jones (wk), 3 Emma Lamb, 4 Nat Sciver-Brunt (capt), 5 DSophia Dunkley, 6 Alice Davidson-Rich, 7 Charlie Dean, 8 Sophie Ecclestone, 9 Linsey Smith, 10 Lauren Filer, 11 Lauren Bell
India 1 Pratika Rawal, 2 Smriti Mandhana, 3 Harleen Deol, 4 Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), 5 Jemimah Rodrigues, 6 Richa Ghosh (wk), 7 Deepti Sharma, 8 Radha Yadav, 9 Sneh Rana, 10 N Sree Charani, 11 Kranti Goud
12.20pm: Valkerie Baynes has made the long trek up to County Durham, and brings us what sounds like vaguely promising news from the Riverside: “Overcast but bright enough here. I see no rain and both teams are out warming up, although it looks like it could drizzle any time”
Colin Calloway is first out of the postbag today: “Why no Shefali Verma? Last time out she scored over 70 and not been seen since. Surely, picking your best squad isn’t that difficult if based on recent performance.” The straightforward answer, Colin, is that she hasn’t played ODIs since October 2024 – though 75 off 41 in the fifth T20I against England did hint at what she can do in form
12.15pm: Although England won the second ODI comfortably on Saturday, there was a little bit of edge to proceedings – India’s optimistic appeal for obstructing the field against Tammy Beaumont carrying echoes of 2022’s famous “womankad” incident, when Deepti Sharma ran out Charlie Dean while backing up. Dean came up against Deepti (who is also her London Spirit team-mate) at the weekend, and she spoke about England’s need to “challenge ourselves in pressure situations” ahead of tonight’s game in Durham
12pm: Haway the lads lasses. Welcome to The Decider. India took the T20Is 3-2, and it’s currently 1-1 in the ODIs with one to play. Can England complete a come-from-behind win at Chester-le-Street to share the spoils and set the new regime off to the 50-over World Cup on the right foot – or will India make it two series wins from two, and job done for the tour? The teams have headed up to the rugged northeast for this one, and hopefully we’ll dodge the showers after the waterworks at Lord’s (where, quite frankly, they did amazingly well to get a game on). Stick with us for toss and teams new shortly