England skipper Heather Knight lead from the front by scoring a fine unbeaten 53 as England Women defeated India Women by 4 wickets at Mount Maunganui on Wednesday.
After being put to into bat by England skipper, India lost wickets of Yastika Bhatia, Mithali Raj and Deepti Sharma early, leaving them in a spot of bother at 28/3.
The pair of Smriti Mandhana along with Harmanpreet Kaur added 33 runs for the fourth wicket stand before Charlie Dean struck twice- first by dismissing Kaur and then sending back Sneh Rana in succession.
Sophie Ecclestone then trapped the well set Mandhana for 35. Richa Ghosh (33) and Jhulan Goswami put on a vital 37-run stand for the eighth wicket to give the Women in Blue some sort of respectability. In the end they were eventually bowled out for 134 in 36.2 overs.
Charlie Dean was the pick of the bowlers for England Women with figures of 4/23.
Chasing 135, England lost Tammy Beaumont and Danni Wyatt early on the chase. The 39 year old lanky pacer trapped Beaumont leg before wicket, and became the first women pacer to claim 250 wickets in one day cricket.
Heather Knight and Nat Sciver featured in a vital 65 run stand for the third wicket before the latter (45) top edged a Pooja Vastrakar delivery to Goswami.
Meghna Singh provided a glimmer of hope by dismissing Sophia Dunkley and Katherine Brunt to reduce England to 128/6.
Sophie Ecclestone scored the winning runs to give England their first win of the tournament.
Charlie Dean was declared the Player of the Match.