Team India have registered a convincing win by 155 runs over West Indies in their third game of the 2022 World Cup. Their comprehensive win came on the back of Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur.
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Team India have registered a convincing win by 155 runs over the West Indies in their third game of the 2022 World Cup. Their comprehensive win came on the back of Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur. Both led India’s batting in Hamilton with twin centuries and helped to climb to the top of the points table once again.
Mithali Raj won the toss and elected to bat first. With an unchanged team, Yastika Bhatia opened with Mandhana and set the stage in the powerplay. In her very second World Cup match, she played a blitzy 31 off 21 after having faced a poor show in the last match against New Zealand a couple of days ago.
After scoring fifty within 7 overs, India lost two early wickets – Bhatia and the captain Mithali Raj, who came to bat at her usual position – no. 3. After posting 62/2 in the powerplay, India were on their way to recovery until Hayley Matthews grabbed a one-handed stunner behind the keeper to sent Deepti Sharma in the hut.
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The onus fell on Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur to steady the ship. After settling down to 125/3 by the halfway mark, the opener scored a 66-ball half-century and soon after they both started hitting all over the park. Mandhana soon hit one straight down the ground off Selman for the first of her two sixes in the same over whereas Harmanpreet Kaur reached her 15th ODI fifty with a boundary off the last ball as well.
Smriti Mandhana hit another straight six to long-off off Aaliyah Allene before being offered a reprieve by her on 94. The century – her fifth in ODIs, second against West Indies and in World Cups. And then, Kaur too reached 90s in style – punishing Dottin with a slog-sweep over deep midwicket for six as well. Mandhana scored 123 off 119) and Harmanpreet smashed 109 off 107, stitching a record 184-run stand for the fourth-wicket – India’s best in World Cups that propelled India to 317/8 as well. This was also their best score in World Cups.
While chasing, West Indies got off to a flying start. Both the openers – Deandra Dottin and Hayley Matthews started taking on every bowler and reached 50 runs inside 5 overs only. In between, Dottin managed to score a 35-ball fifty with a towering six over the log-on and soon they managed to add 100 runs inside 12 overs without losing a single wicket as well.
READ MORE: White Ferns proved too strong for Team India in Hamilton
And, then Mithali Raj brought Sneh Rana in the attack and she took just two balls to give the team a much-needed breakthrough. Dottin, after 10 fours and a six in her 46-ball 62, got a thick top-edge to Meghna Singh at short fine. And that broke the shackle Soon Kycia Knight got out alongside Stafanie Taylor.
However, no other West Indies batter could manage to contribute and they were reduced to 140/6 at the halfway mark as well. Meanwhile, veteran India speedster Jhulan Goswami became the highest wicket-taker in Women’s ODI World Cup history and bundled West Indies within 162 runs within 41st over as well.
Brief scores:
India 317/8 in 50 overs (Smriti Mandhana 123, Harmanpreet Kaur 109; Aninsa Mohammed 2-59) beat West Indies 162 all out in 40.3 overs (Deandra Dottin 62, Hayley Matthews 43; Sneh Rana 3-22, Meghna Singh 2-27) by 155 runs.
