NEWS
Follow UsThe Indian women finally looked in rhythm with the bat in the ongoing T20 World Cup in UAE and it was their openers, Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma, who batted with a lot of authority and stability against Sri Lanka in their third game of the tournament.
India had a horrid start to the tournament after they began with a 58-run loss against New Zealand in Dubai, and then had a sedate win against Pakistan by six wickets, where they failed to improve their net run rate (NRR) situation.
However, after winning the toss and choosing to bat first in the game against Sri Lanka, their approach looked much more positive and full of intent. While they struggled to find the boundaries in the powerplay at regular intervals, the singles and doubles kept coming, and eventually, Shafali managed to free her arms.
It was the last over of the powerplay when Mandhana also joined Shafali in her run-scoring. She danced down the track to left-arm spinner Sugandika Kumari, who lofted her over the infield for two boundaries in the over.
The boundaries kept coming at regular intervals even after the powerplay, and as a result, they scored 78 runs in the first 10 overs without losing a wicket and completed their 20th 50-run partnership in T20I cricket in the process. By doing that, they equalled the record of the pair of Beth Mooney and Alyssa Healy, who also have 20 instances of scoring 50 or more together.
Mandhana also completed her 500 runs in T20 World Cups in the process, and when she was finally run out and the partnership was broken, Indians were in a good spot to press for a 150-plus total for the first time in this tournament, which is being dominated by spin.
She also completed her 27th half-century in the format and is now second amongst all Indians in the list of most 50-plus scores by an Indian woman in T20 World Cups.
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