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Richa Ghosh, Harmanpreet Kaur star with the bat after Deepti Sharma’s record
Deepti Sharma became the first Indian bowler to scalp 100 T20I wickets as she set up India to register a comfortable six-wicket win over West Indies in their second match at the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup on Wednesday, February 15.
Rising star Richa Ghosh and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur contributed with the bat as India chased down 119 with 11 balls to spare to register their second win in the tournament.
The win also marked India’s dominance over the West Indies, as they recorded their eighth consecutive win over the Caribbean. The loss also highlighted the West Indies’ slide as they suffered their 15th consecutive loss in the format.
Electing to bat, the West Indies lost their skipper Hayley Matthews with just four runs on board. Though Stefanie Taylor (42, 40b, 6×4) and Shemaine Campbelle (30, 36b, 3×4) added 73 runs for the second wicket, West Indies found scoring runs next to impossible with India employing spin from both ends.
While both the batters tried to take advantage once the medium pacers were back, the return of Sharma did the trick as he removed both batters in the space of three balls with just one run added to the total.
The pressure then had a telling effect as India upped the ante on the field as the West Indies perished while trying to accelerate the scoring rate.
Sharma took three wickets and went on to write her name in the record books as India restricted their rivals to 118 for six.
Returning to the side, a day after she became the costliest player in the Women’s Premier League, Smriti Mandhana did not exactly sizzle on the field. The last match’ star Jemimah Rodrigues too fell early while Shafali Verma (28, 23b, 5×4) was only flattered to deceive.
Harmanpreet Kaur’s experience came to the fore as the skipper dropped anchor to allow Richa Ghosh to play her natural attacking game.
While Kaur (33, 42b, 3×6) dropped anchor, Ghosh, the gum-chewing, hard-hitting wicketkeeper batter, went after the rival attack that lacked bite.
Though Kaur fell just four runs short of the target, Ghosh (44*, 32b, 5×4) remained not out to see the team through as India reached the target in 18.1 overs.
For the West Indies, opener Karishma Ramharack took two wickets.
BRIEF SCORE: WI 118/6 (Stefanie Taylor 42, Shemaine Campbelle 30; Deepti Sharma 3/15) lost to India 119/4 (Richa Ghosh 44*, Harmanpreet Kaur 33; Karishma Ramharack 2/14) by six wickets
