Pace duo Renuka Singh and Pooja Vastrakar shared five wickets as India produced a clinical bowling show to outscore Bangladesh by 44 runs in the opening match of the Women's T20I on Sunday. Captain Harmanpreet Kaur and Yastika Bhatia opted to bat and provided solidity in the middle order, but India missed the late flourish and reached 145 for seven. The hosts must have been fancying their chances to chase down the total but Indian bowlers led by Renuka delivered the goods to restrict Bangladesh to 101 for 8.
Skipper Nigar Sultana put up a lonely battle with 51 off 48, but did not get any support from the other side.
For India, Renuka was the leader of the bowling unit as she trapped Dilara Akter (4) in her third ball before removing Sobhana Mostary (6) at 5th.
Experienced spinner Deepti Sharma then removed Murshida Khatun (13) LBW while Vastrakar Fahima Khatun (1) knocked the pads at 7 to leave the hosts at 30 for 4.
Radha Yadav also bowled one up to deceive Shorna Akter (11), while Renuka returned to get rid of Rabeya Khan (2). Shreyanka Patil also joined the party and sent back Nahida Akter (9) before Sultana fell to Vastrakar in the final.
Earlier, charismatic opener Smriti Mandhana departed for just nine runs but Shafali Verma put in a grim performance to score a 22-ball 31.
Bhatia (36 off 29 balls) and Harmappreet (30 off 22) then put together a 45-run partnership as Indian batters overcame the challenges on a slow wicket.
Bangladesh leg-spinner Rabeya Khan was the most successful bowler for the hosts, returning figures of 3/23 in four overs.
Mandhana started in earnest by sending Sultan Khatun's consecutive deliveries towards the ropes in the second.
India's vice-captain first danced across the track to deliver the ball over the extra cover fielder before hitting a short delivery through the square leg area.
But Mandhana's stay was cut short when she tried to play a Fariha Trisna (1/23) ball over the line, only to find a thick inside edge uprooting her leg stump.
That blow kept the Indian batters quiet for quite some time before Shafali signaled her intention by smashing a pitched delivery over the long fence for a big six off Khatun.
Shafali and Yastika continued to score at a reasonable pace, picking up loose deliveries from Fariha and Nahida Akter to reach boundaries.
But Shafali departed in the ninth over and tried to play a Rabeya Khan delivery over the line but ended up giving Fahima an easy catch at extra cover.
With Harmanpreet joining Yastika at the crease, the runs came freely. She picked Rabiya for special treatment in the 11th over and scored 13 runs with the help of two boundaries.
Yastika too showed excellent technique and timing and played some beautiful boundaries off left-arm pacer Fariha Trisna in the 13th over as India crossed the 100-run mark.
But both well-placed batters departed in quick succession, with Harmanpreet declaring a perpendicular lead in front after a Fahima delivery in the 14th over and Rabeya getting the prized wicket of Yastika, caught in the point region by Sultana.
Earlier, Harmanpreet won the toss and chose to bat. The five-match T20I series is a dress rehearsal for the upcoming T20I World Cup in Bangladesh later this year.
(This story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Topics mentioned in this article