Mumbai, Jan 10: In a low-scoring match at the Bandra-Kurla Complex in Mumbai, the West Indian women’s team beat the Indian women’s side by nine wickets. This was the first match in the five ODI series.
The experienced Indian side was simply outplayed by the West Indies who came into the match with a victory over the Board President’s XI.
Chasing 162 runs, the West Indies were marginally ahead of the Indians at every stage, despite losing Juliana Nero early to a Jhulan Goswami yorker. The other opener, Stafanie Taylor, anchored the innings scoring an unbeaten 85 runs. Contributing with the bat and the ball, she would have definitely been the man-of-the match had there been one.
She was ably supported by Shanel Daley (44 not-out) with whom she shared a 137-run partnership.
The Indian bowlers didn’t give much away early in the WI innings. As in any low- scoring game, the match was an even contest at the half way mark except that India had lost a couple of extra wickets. But the Indians were unable to cash in on the early wicket that they had picked.
Taylor was the only player to reach the 50-run mark. The right-left combination of Taylor and Daley steadily built a partnership that helped their team inch towards victory.
But, when the 100 came up in the 30th over at the loss of only one wicket, it was evident that the women in red were definitely the ones in the driver’s seat. They started picking cheeky singles and tried to hit hard and the Indians weren’t able to stem the flow of runs. The fielding, too, was below par and the WIs sniffed victory. Jhulan Goswami went for 13 runs in the 34th over, which was the most expensive over that far.
Earlier, Indian skipper Jhulan Goswami won the toss and elected to bat first on a flat track. Beginning cautiously, the Indian openers, Poonam Raut and Anagha Deshpande, scored at the rate of around 2.50 for the first 16 overs without losing a wicket.
The West Indies pace attack of Selman, Smartt, Dottin and King bowled an impressively tight line. Bowling to the field, they did not allow the batsmen any room to play freely.
After the 15-over mark, the batsman tried to accelerate the run-rate, but that only resulted in the fall of wickets at regular intervals. Anagha Deshpande, who had got two lives early on, was the first to depart (lbw to Deandra Dottin) after doing all the hard work to make 21 runs.
The introduction of spinner Anisa Mohammad to the attack made all the difference. She claimed two consecutive wickets, including that of world No. 1 batsman Mithali Raj. Just as the partnership between Mithali and Harmanpreet Kaur began to take shape, Mithali was out, caught at short-midwicket. She walked straight into the trap laid out by the opposition. Before her, Poonam Raut was Anisa’s first wicket in her very first over.
Harmanpreet Kaur looked like she would stabilise the Indian innings but was run-out on 32 runs. Diana David, who replaced her in the middle, followed her right back without adding to the score.
The West Indies Women bowlers were successful in tying down the Indian Women batsmen and picked up wickets consistently.
With the fall of Reema Malhotra’s wicket, India were 133/8 and had a little over eight overs to go. With two new batsmen, Amita Sharma and Jhulan Goswami, at the crease, India were precariously placed. Soon after India reached 150 at the end of 46 overs with two wickets in hand, the Indian skipper was sent back by Stafanie Taylor off her own bowling.
Tail-enders Sharma and Gouhar Sultana were left to negotiate the last four overs. The Indian innings was wrapped-up for a total of 161 in 49.3 runs with 22 extras .
Anisa, the world record holder for four-wicket hauls was the thorn in India’s side. Embellishing her own record, the right arm off-spinner from Trinidad finished with figures of four wickets for 27 runs in eight overs. Taylor was the other off-spinner to claim two Indian batsmen.
WI Women Playing XI:SR Taylor, JB Nero, SF Daley, MR Aguilleira*†, SACA King, DJS Dottin, B Cooper, A Mohammed, SA Campbelle, SC Selman, T Smartt
India Women Playing XI:R Dhar, A Sharma, P Roy, M Raj, J Goswami*, H Kaur, G Sultana, DP David, R Malhotra, A Deshpande†, P Raut
