India beat Windies by six wickets

Cape Town (Best Hindu News): After Deepti Sharma (15/3)’s excellent bowling, Richa Ghosh (44 not out) and Captain Harmanpreet Kaur (33) restrained innings, India on Wednesday won the Women’s T20 World Cup 2023 group. Defeated West Indies by six wickets in B match.

West Indies, batting first, set a target of 119 runs in front of India. India achieved this target by losing four wickets in just 18.1 overs.

For the Windies, Stafanie Taylor top-scored with 42 runs off 40 balls with six fours, while Shamen Campbell contributed 30 runs off 36 balls. Apart from dismissing both these batsmen, Deepti also took the wicket of Effie Fletcher.

Chasing the target, the Indian team got off to a brisk start, though the Windies came back in the match on the spinners. Harmanpreet and Richa anchored the innings with a match-winning stand of 72 after India fell three wickets in quick succession. Harmanpreet scored 33 off 42 balls with three fours, while explosive batsman Richa scored an unbeaten 44 off 32 balls with five fours. Harmanpreet was dismissed before reaching the target, but Richa took India to victory by hitting the winning four off the first ball of the 19th over.

With two wins from two matches, India retained the second spot in Group B, while West Indies are fourth in the table after losing both their matches.

Chasing the target for India, Shafali Verma started explosively by hitting three fours in the very first over. In the next over, Shefali hit a four, while Smriti Mandhana hit two fours. India were cruising towards a small target and West Indies were in dire need of wickets. Karishma Ramhark gave Windies their first breakthrough in the fourth over by dismissing Mandhana (10). In the very next over, captain Hayley Mathews got Jemimah Rodrigues caught out on her own ball.

Shefali wanted to play a big shot when the run rate decreased, but she too got out caught at the boundary and returned to the pavilion. Shefali scored 28 runs off 23 balls with five fours before getting out.

After India suffered three setbacks, Harmanpreet and Richa showed great composure to take the innings forward. Both of them did not allow any further loss by taking the team’s score to 64 runs till the 10th over. After putting India in a safe position, both took the partnership forward without taking any risk and completed the half-century partnership in the 15th over.

India needed four runs in the last three overs. Harmanpreet was dismissed by Shinnell Henry in the 18th over, although Richa hit the very first ball of the very next over for a four to seal the victory for India.

Earlier, electing to bat after winning the toss, the West Indies lost skipper Hayley Matthews (two) early, though Taylor and Campbell continued to propel the innings thereafter.

Stefanie and Campbell shared a 73-run partnership for the second wicket, though India did not allow the Windies to increase their run rate during this period. Towards the end of the innings, the Windies tried to increase the run-rate, which resulted in the loss of quick wickets.

Deepti dismissed Campbell and Taylor in the 14th over, while Shenell Henry was run out in the very next over. After three wickets fell in quick succession, however, Shedeen Nation and Shabika Ghajnabi shared a crucial 35-run partnership for the fifth wicket to help West Indies reach 118 runs.

Nation scored an unbeaten 21 off 18 balls with a four, while Gajanabi scored 15 off 13 balls with the help of two fours. Renuka Singh broke the partnership by dismissing Gajanabi, while Deepti dismissed Effie Fletcher to claim her 100th wicket in T20 Internationals.

Deepti took three wickets for just 15 runs in four overs, while Renuka Singh (four overs, 22 runs) and Pooja Vastrakar (four overs, 21 runs) got one success each.