Live Score

The bad news here! The rain is in no mood to stop, therefore, no more play is possible. Hence, England beat India by 18 runs on the DLS method. And the Three Lions a lead of 8-4 in the multi-format series, which means they cannot lose the series now.

Arjun: In the clash between the number two ranked and the number three team, heavy-weight England got better off the visiting Indians in this opening T20I match. Earlier in the day, Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur won the coin flip and decided to put Heather Knight and company to bat first. However, the decision didn’t go as Harmanpreet would have hoped for. The opening pair of Wyatt and Beaumont gave a solid start before a breath-taking stand between Sciver and Jones made sure the Three Lions post a mammoth total.

Arjun: To chase a mountain of 178 runs, the well-known duo of Mandhana and Verma came out to give India a blistering start, but England’s Brunt outstripped the World no. 1 batter. However, the southpaw got united with Deol to crunch some needed boundaries in the Powerplay overs. But the opener played too many stokes as she lost the battle to Sciver. Then Knight brought spinners and piled pressure on the Women in Blue in the overcast conditions. In the process, Glenn scalped the wicket of the out-of-touch Indian skipper, before the rain showers forced the players to get off the field. Later, the rain got better off everyone as we all had nothing more than disappointment.

Arjun: The India pair of Harleen Deol and Deepti Sharma stayed unbeaten but they cannot save their team from the embarrassment, the embarrassment of losing. In the end, England won by 18 runs on DLS, they cannot lose the series now.

Presentation time!

Harmanpreet Kaur | Indian Skipper: We knew after 8.30pm there was rain forecast so we were batting according to that but unfortunately we kept losing wickets. Otherwise, if there had been two or three more overs then I think we could have made it. I feel that we fielded really well, there is a lot of improvement in our fielding. That's what we want to keep doing as a team. Every game is important for us, today was unfortunate because of rain and some decisions here and there but still two more games for us to prove ourselves and definitely look to win.

Heather Knight | England Skipper: Still got a series to win, important we turn up at Hove. Really pleased today, thought Nat was outstanding in the middle over, brilliant partnership with Amy. Clinical with the ball, looked to take wickets early, so very pleasing. [Sciver] It was awesome, really aggressive. Nat hits the ball so hard, she struck it cleaner than ever. Danni and Tammy deserve a mention at the top as well, been a while since we had a 50 partnership. [Jones] She's moved down from opening, feel she's in a great position to win us games, four-five are really important [positions] and she's well suited to the role. [Rain] Unfortunately it's set in, would have been good to get out there.

Natalie Sciver gets the Player of the Match award for her sparkling 55 off just 27 balls, while she also scalped a wicket with the ball.

Natalie Sciver | Player of the Match: It just came together, I was really enjoying it. The wicket was nice, it was good. [Good form] Definitely, got an opportunity to bat with more freedom, good partnership at the top and we've got a strong line-up so that helps. [Jones stand] Once you felt comfortable, you could really hit through the line, so we managed to get a good partnership together. Our plans in T20, we know them really well, and have had a lot of success, so it was a good game.

That's the end of our coverage for the match. It was a pleasure bringing you the coverage of this game. Do join us for round two of this T20I series on the 11th. And keep a tab on OneCricket as we bring all the cricket that is played all around the world. Till the next time, it's a ta-ta and goodnight from me, Arjun Bhalla, and my co-commentators - Vikhyat Jain and Anurag Singh.