NEWS
Follow UsMore than 47000 people attended the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai today, and they were treated to a blistering batting show by the Indian batters.
After Smriti Mandhana scored 73 off just 47 deliveries, Richa Ghosh brought out her big guns and went off like a rocket. She scored a fifty in just 18 deliveries, equalling the record for the joint-fastest WT20I half-century made by Sophie Devine and Phoebe Litchfield.
She began the onslaught from her first ball at the crease. Right after Mandhana departed, Dottin bowled it full and wide to Ghosh, who effortlessly hit it for a six down the ground. The next ball from Dottin also raced away to the boundary after Ghosh showed her touch by guiding the ball between the backward point and short third fielder for a boundary.
She was ably supported by Raghvi Bist, who didn’t let the run rate go down after Jemimah Rodrigues’ wicket and scored 31 off 22 deliveries courtesy two fours and six (which she opened her account with).
Meanwhile, Ghosh continued to deal in sixes alone, bashing five of them in her innings as compared to scoring just three fours. She was even better on the leg side today than down the ground, as she pulled and flicked deliveries for sixes with ridiculous ease. As she ended with 54 (21), Sajana Sajeevan hit a four on the last delivery to take India to 217/4 — their highest-ever WT20I total. This was 16 runs more than the 201 they scored against UAE earlier this year in the Asia Cup.
Meanwhile, Ghosh now has 322 runs at an average of 40.3 and a strike rate of 167 at the DY Patil, which is her happy hunting ground.
