Indian women’s cricket team continued their outstanding performance in the five-match T20I series with a 61-run win in the fifth and final encounter against West Indies to whitewash the series. By virtue of this win, they not only continued their winning streak in the T20Is but also return from the Caribbean Islands with a solitary defeat in the entire journey.
With a 4-0 lead coming into the final match, Smriti Mandhana led the team in Harmanpreet Kaur’s absence. Winning the toss, Indian women chose to bat first. It wasn’t the best of starts for India as they lost their openers, Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana in quick succession. While Mandhana departed for 9, Shafali struck a boundary before being dismissed cheaply for 7.
Nevertheless, a 117-run stand for the third-wicket between Jemimah Rodrigues (50) and Veda Krishnamurthy (57) bailed Indian women out of a crisis. The pair played with confidence and kept the scoreboard rising without going overboard with their stroke play. As a result, the two grabbed their respective half-centuries to take their team to reach a good score.
Chasing the target of 135 runs, Windies women were never in the hunt. Mansi Joshi kept it tight in the beginning whereas Anuja Patil kept her focus to break the hosts’ top-order. Soon, they were reduced to 53 for 5 before playing out their full quota of overs to manage only 73 for the loss of 7 wickets.
Anuja got very good supports during this match from players, such as Radha Yadav, Poonam Yadav, Pooja Vastrakar and Harleen Deol.
