India Women clinched the T20I series against Bangladesh Women with a tense eight-run win in the second game at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium in Mirpur.
India successfully defended a total of 95 after an underwhelming show by the batters. Shafali Verma played a crucial role in India’s victory by picking up three last-over wickets, and emerging as the highest run-scorer for her team.
Going into the last two overs, Bangladesh needed just 14, with five wickets in hand. But both Deepti Sharma and Shafali gave nothing away, and the Bangladesh batters imploded in disastrous fashion, losing four wickets in the final over.
After winning the toss, India elected to bat first in the hope of posting a daunting total. Smriti Mandhana and Shafali opened the innings but the former fell early, bowled by Nahida Akter. However, Shafali showed her attacking prowess and scored a quickfire 21-ball 28, hitting four boundaries. Jemimah Rodrigues and Harleen Deol struggled to get going as Bangladesh’s bowlers maintained pressure. Yastika Bhatia provided some resistance with her 13-ball 11, but India could only manage 95 runs for the loss of 8 wickets in their allotted 20 overs. It was poor strike rotation and the inability to find gaps that cost India dearly with the willow.
Chasing 96 for victory, Bangladesh got off to a shaky start, losing Shamima Sultana to a catch by Shafali off Minnu Mani. The Indian spinners continued to apply pressure, and wickets fell at regular intervals. Nigar Sultana fought hard with her 38 runs off 55 balls, but she lacked support from the other end. Shafali starred with the ball as well, taking three crucial wickets in the last over while defending 10 runs and ending up India’s joint-highest wicket-taker in the match.
Shafali dismissed Nigar in the last over, leaving Bangladesh all out for 87 runs, nine runs short of the target. India’s spinners, including Deepti and Anusha Bareddy, contributed to the team’s success by taking important wickets and restricting the scoring rate.
With this win, India took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series. The Indian bowlers performed exceptionally well, putting pressure on the Bangladeshi batters and not allowing them to build partnerships. It was a challenging day for the Bangladesh Women’s team, as they struggled to chase down the target set by India.
Though India have won the the series, there has to he some sort of introspection about team’s playing style in the shortest format. Is too many dot balls, a bunch of anchors in the batting line-up, misfields, the way to go about business and challenge teams like Australia and England on the biggest stage? The Women in Blue would know that they may have come up with a victory against Bangladesh despite the lacklustre efforts on the field but against the bigger nations, this would have ended up in embarrassment.
India will take the field for the third and final T20I against Bangladesh on Thursday in Dhaka.