Back home in familiar conditions after the ODI series drubbing in Australia, Jemimah Rodrigues and Smriti Mandhana powered India’s comfortable win against West Indies in Navi Mumbai in the first T20I of the three-match series in Navi Mumbai on Sunday.
There were plenty of questions facing Harmanpreet Kaur in the pre-match media interaction, regarding selections and recent performances, and the India captain’s frustrations were evident. She deflected questions about player omissions, conceded that mindset was an issue in not winning big matches, and bemoaned the recent scheduling of matches.
The DY Patil stadium, however, is a venue where a lot of the Indian players are comfortable. And it was evident from the start. Uma Chetry impressed in a brief cameo as an opener, and then Mandhana and Rodrigues put on a show with a 44-ball 81 partnership for the second wicket. A target of 196 proved 49 runs too far for West Indies, who were playing for the first time since their semifinal appearance at this year’s T20 World Cup.
The result also marked the first time that a team batting first won a match outright at DY Patil Stadium in what was the 12th women’s T20I at the venue. Chasing has been conventionally easier here on a good batting wicket, with dew setting and India’s bowlers – led by a 3-wicket haul from Titas Sadhu – largely executed their plans well, despite ‘World Boss’ Deandra Dottin threatening to chase the target down towards the end.
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Asked to bat first, India got off to a good start within the powerplay thanks to a flurry of boundaries for Mandhana and Chetry. The latter eventually slowed down and perished looking to up the ante. Rodrigues, however, was on the money from the word go, utilising her sweeps and inside-out drives to great effect to register her fastest T20I fifty. India’s 195/4 was their third-highest total in T20Is.
With Harmanpreet not on the field for the second half, Mandhana marshalled her bowlers well enough, picking wickets in regular intervals. The fielding effort was once again a mixed bag for India, as a couple of superb catches were interspersed with some sitters being put down too. The spin duo of Deepti Sharma and Radha Yadav were impressive, keeping things tight for the most part and picking up two wickets each. Dottin’s late fireworks, helped by a couple of reprieves, gave West Indies a glimmer but the target always seemed out of their reach.
The second ODI will be played on Tuesday at the same venue.
Brief scores: India 195/4 (Rodrigues 73, Mandhana 54; Ramharack 2/18) beat West Indies 146/7 (Dottin 52, Joseph 49, Sadhu 3/37) by 49 runs
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