England eves beat India 'A'

Buoyed by a splendid all-round performance from Rosalie Birch, the England women beat India 'A' by 37 runs at the Kailash Prakash stadium in Meerut on Friday.

Chasing a target of 183 runs, India 'A' failed to capitalise on an opening start of 67 runs between Karuna Jain and Monica Sharma and fell victim to the guiles of off-spinner Birch to be dismissed for 145.

She returned figures of six for 24 to help England win their second successive warm-up match on their India tour.

Electing to bat, England scored 182 with valuable contributions from Rosale Birch (30), C Edwards (26), Aran Brindle (24) and Claire Taylor (25).

Diana David was the pick of the Indian bowlers, claiming two wickets for 33 runs.

The Indian 'A' eves got off to a bright start with openers Karuna Jain (48) and Monica Sharma (29) playing cautiously to set up a good platform. But their dismissal saw the rest of the Indians fall like a deck of cards.

Anureej Kaur (22) tried to steady the ship but did not get any support from the other end as the middle and lower order could not negotiate Birch's off-spin.