NEWS
Follow UsSmriti Mandhana lived a charmed life at the crease in the second T20I between India and West Indies women. She was dropped thrice in the field by the Windies. However, she made most of that luck and was the highest scorer as India ended up with 159/9 in the first innings, scoring 62 off 41 deliveries. It was her 29th fifty in T20Is, which is the most for any batter in the format.
The West Indian bowlers, led by Deandra Dottin, were much better in executing their plans in the second game as Uma Chetry, debutant Raghvi Bist, and Jemimah Rodrigues failed to get going on the pitch that did have some movement for the bowlers with the new ball. Dottin cleaned up Chetry with one such in-ducker.
Meanwhile, Mandhana continued to bat in a sedate fashion for the majority of her innings and collected the occasional boundary through her sweeps. Playing down the ground against the spinners proved to be a bit tough, and Dottin and Karishma Ramharack were extremely accurate with their execution.
However, Mandhana decided to up the ante in the 13th over when she took down Ashmini Munisar and Hayley Matthews in the 14th, as India collected 36 runs in those two overs. Remarkably, West Indies dropped her twice in those two overs after she got a chance earlier in the game.
She brought up her 29th fifty in the process and surpassed Suzie Bates’ 28 fifties in T20I cricket. Behind her are Beth Mooney, Stafanie Taylor and Sophie Devine, with 23, 22 and 21 fifties, respectively.
Richa Ghosh took up the responsibility of upping the ante after Mandhana’s dismissal and scored 32 off just 17 deliveries. Dottin dismissed her caught behind, and ended up with figures of 2/14 in her four overs. She also took a spectacular diving catch of Radha Yadav while being airborne. With the dew coming in, the West Indian bowlers would fancy chasing 160 under lights.
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