India rides on top-order show to beat Bangladesh

SYLHET: Shafali Verma once again showed her match-winning prowess with an attractive 55 off 44 balls as India out-batted Bangladesh by 59 runs to win its fourth match and clinch a semi-final spot in the Women’s Asia Cup T20 here on Saturday.

After an indifferent batting show in the defeat against Pakistan, the ‘Women In Blue’ put up a much improved performance scoring 159 for 5, largely due to a 96-run opening stand between Shafali and stand-in skipper Smriti Mandhana (47 off 38 balls).

Credit should also go to Jemimah Rodrigues, whose 35 not out off just 24 balls helped the Indian team score nearly 160.

Bangladesh managed 100 for 7 at the end of 20 overs and never looked like being in the hunt for a victory.

With 8 points from five games, India is on top of the seven-team table with a match left in the round robin stage.

Having never chased a total beyond 142 in its entire T20I history, Bangladesh did try its bit but could never force the momentum against a solid Indian bowling attack which kept things tight.

After a shoddy fielding effort against Pakistan, it improved by a couple of notches on the day as there were no easy runs in store. The host couldn’t even score 50 in the first 10 overs and scoring more than 110 runs in the back-10 was virtually impossible for it.

None of the Indian bowlers were off target for the better part with Sneh Rana (1/17 in 3 overs) and Deepti Sharma (2/13 in 4 overs) being parsimonious as ever. Even Shafali’s loopy leg-breaks (2/10 in 4 overs) seemed unplayable.

BRIEF SCORES: India women 159/5 in 20 overs (S Verma 55, S Mandhana 47, R Ahmed 3/27) bt Bangladesh women 100/7 in 20 overs

Mandhana proud of India’s gritty effort

India’s stand-in captain Smriti Mandhana lauded her team’s comprehensive 59-run victory over Bangladesh in the Women’s Asia Cup, terming it as a “good comeback” within 24 hours of losing to Pakistan in a low-scoring contest.

India, now with four wins out of five games, is through to the semi-finals of the continental event.

“It was disappointing in the last match (versus Pakistan). It’s good to come back after that loss, really proud of the girls. Today it was a total team performance,” Mandhana said after the match.

The regular vice-captain was all praise for young Shafali Verma and the talented Jemimah Rodrigues.

“Shafali batted well, and also Jemimah played well. We could have scored 10 runs more while batting. We had to keep bowling dot balls, and we had to wait for their batters to make mistakes, which they did. Our bowlers bowled really well,” she added.