Faced with a must-win game against one of the best teams in the world, England silenced the doubters by strolling to an impressive victory on a warm Wednesday evening.

But enough about the football.*

In the cricket at Old Trafford in Manchester, faced with a similar situation, England took a running dive… and belly-flopped into a puddle of mud – India winning the game with 18 balls to spare, and the T20 series with a match still to play.

India were roared on by a crowd of over 7,000 that contained more Indian flags and shirts than English ones. It was an Indian crowd in nature as well as in colours – at one stage chants of “Radha! Radha!” rang out from the stands after a brilliant piece of fielding from the spinner on the boundary had saved what had looked like a certain 4, as if this were the WPL not a summer’s evening in England.

It wasn’t the perfect all-round performance from India – with the bat, they’ll be disappointed they let their foot off the gas after a typically explosive start from Shafali and Smriti. In truth it probably shouldn’t have got as far as the 17th over.

Lauren Filer caused them a few problems again, but she also showed her limitations – you can bowl as fast as you want, but you need to be hitting something – either the stumps or the batter – or you aren’t actually going to take any wickets. And bowling short outside off is mostly just going to invite runs, especially to a player like Shafali, who knows that with pace guaranteed even an edge is probably going to fly over the infield, which is exactly what happened in her first over, which went for 14, and allowed India to get ahead of the game early.

But it was with the ball and in the field that India really won this match, and looked a cut above the side that visited these shores 3 years ago. I felt after that series that England’s official ranking as the No. 2 side in the world ahead of India was probably slightly flattering them; but it looks much more the case today.

India’s spinners in particular bowled with incredible discipline, making it impossible for England’s batters to play their shots; and even with the ropes well out at Old Trafford, India’s fielders relentlessly turned 2s into singles. Alice Capsey was ruthlessly tormented by the tightness of the bowling – hitting one real shot in her innings of 18 – a slog-sweep off Deepti that dissected the two fielders at cow corner. The rest was a horrible edge for 4 through the keeper, and 8 singles.

And it wasn’t any better a day for anyone else in an England batting shirt – Sophia Dunkley being England’s top scorer with just 22. Ironically, I don’t think Dunkley did anything different today compared to her knock on Friday at The Oval, when she made 75 – it was just that on this occasion her erratic strokeplay found a fielder sooner rather than later.

A horrid final over from Deepti allowed England to get over the line of total ignominy, as Issy Wong and Sophie Ecclestone carted her for 16 to pass 120; but still 126 is not going to win you many games of cricket at this level, and so it proved today.

Around 40 minutes after play finished, with the press conferences done and dusted, Tammy Beaumont was back out on the field at Old Trafford running sprints around the boundary. Whether it was some kind of forfeit or punishment, I can’t say. But what I can say is that it isn’t really her fault alone that England lost – this just isn’t a team capable of beating the best in the world. And India are starting to look like a team ready to lay claim to being just that.

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*The Lionesses beat the Netherlands 4-0 at the Women’s Euros in Zurich.