Derby, June 30: India lost their first ODI of the NatWest Quadrangular series to England by six wickets at the County Ground here.

Led by skipper Charlotte Edwards (51 off 85 balls), England women reached the target comfortably with over four overs to spare. Although she lost her opening partner Heather Knight in the first over, Edwards continued to hold up one end. She built a 57-run partnership with Claire Taylor (41 runs) that set the tone for the England innings. After the departure of Edwards, Claire and Lydia Greenway (51* runs) were involved in a 52-run stand until the former was run-out. That brought Sarah Taylor to the crease. The duo of Sarah and Greenway then took England to victory with an unbroken partnership of 68 runs.

Earlier, put in to bat, India lost opener Anagha Deshpande and Mithali Raj with just 15 runs on the board. But an 83-run stand between Poonam Raut (52 runs) and Harmanpreet Kaur (41 runs) helped salvage the Indian innings. Debutant Veda Krishnamurthy (51 runs), who came in at the fall of Kaur’s wicket, was involved in two valuable partnerships of 30 and 34 runs with Raut and Jhulan Goswami respectively.

Katherine Brunt and Holly Colvin took two wickets, and effected a run-out, each that helped England restrict India to 202 runs.

India now play Australia on Saturday, July 2 at Chesterfield.

Brief scores: India 202/9 in 50 overs (P Raut 52, V Krishnamurthy 51, H Kaur 41, KH Brunt 2/36, H Colvin 2/50) lost to England 204/4 in 45.2 overs (L Greenway 51*, C Edwards 51, C Taylor 41) by 6 wickets.

Man-of-the-Match: Lydia Greenway for her match-winning knock of 51 not out off 65 balls with three boundaries.