Hamilton: Centuries from opener Smriti Mandhana and vice-captain Harmanpreet Kaur helped India return to winning ways after beating West Indies by 155 runs in the ICC Women’s One Day World Cup on Saturday. Batting first, India scored 317 for eight, their highest score in the history of the tournament. Mandhana scored her fifth ODI century, scoring 119 runs in 123 balls with the help of 13 fours and two sixes.
At the same time, Harmanpreet added 109 runs in 107 balls with the help of 10 fours and two sixes. This is his fourth century and the first after scoring an unbeaten 171 against Australia in the 2017 World Cup. Both shared 184 runs for the fourth wicket to take India past 200 runs. This is the highest partnership for any wicket for India in the Women’s World Cup. Earlier, captain Mithali Raj had won the toss and elected to bat.
For West Indies, Anisa Mohammed took two wickets for 59 runs while Haley Mathews, Shakira Salman, Deandra Dottin and Alia Allen got a wicket each. Yastika Bhatia scored 31 runs in 21 balls and added 49 runs in just 6.3 overs in the first wicket partnership. After his dismissal, captain Mithali (five) and Deepti Sharma (15) were also dismissed early. After this, Mandhana and Kaur took India’s innings forward by scoring 100 runs in 20 overs. India’s 200 runs were completed in 35.4 overs.
read also
Mandhana completed her first half-century in 66 balls and second in 43 balls. He was also given life by Elene on the score of 96. Apart from this, she also survived on an appeal of LBW. With this win, India are on top of eight teams after three matches. Australia, New Zealand and South Africa also have four points but India’s net run rate is better. Chasing a huge target for victory, West Indies got off to a good start.
Openers Deandra Dottin (62) and Haley Mathews (43) added 100 runs in 12.1 overs. After this, however, spinner Sneh Rana and pacer Meghna Singh put the top-order under pressure with three and two wickets respectively. West Indies’ score was 114 for four after 19 overs. Pooja Vastrakar sent Shemen Campbell (11) and Rajeshwari Gaikwad to Chinelle Henry (7) to the pavilion. Gaikwad and Rana then run out Alia Allene (4) while Jhulan Goswami sent Anisa Mohammed (2) to the pavilion. Now he has 40 wickets in the World Cup. (agency)