Mandhana, Shafali star in big win as India inch closer to semis
They put up a 96-run first-wicket stand to take India to a strong total as Bangladesh fell 59 short in the chase
They put up a 96-run first-wicket stand to take India to a strong total as Bangladesh fell 59 short in the chase
Scorer: Ranjith P | Commentator: S Sudarshanan
4:40pm Four wins out of five for India in the Women's T20 Asia Cup and they are back to being at their menacing best, after what can be considered a blip against Pakistan yesterday. It will be interesting to see how Bangladesh lift themselves up and it will rest on the shoulders of their captain Nigar Sultana, who has clearly looked class apart with the bat. Their next encounter will be against Sri Lanka, so the sooner the better for them. Right, for now, that's all we have from this match. On behalf of Sruthi, whose report will be up here soon, and Ranjith, this is me, Sudarshanan, signing off. Till the next time, take care!
4:33pm Time for the presentation. Nigar Sultana, Bangladesh captain is first up: "We didn't bowl well in the powerplay and after. We bowled too many loose balls and they hit well. Even though we couldn't get a lot in our batting powerplay, that [bowling] cost us eventually. Even though we controlled the first innings after ten overs, our main bowlers didn't bowl in the right areas.. [Delay in introducing leggies] It was our plan because Meghla, Nahida bowled well in the powerplay and I kept them on."
Smriti Mandhana, India captain: "It was disappointing in the last match the way we played. We came back well. Really proud of the girls. Today it was a whole team performance. Shafali batted well at the start, Jemi did well in the end. I liked Deepti's approach for those five balls. We were clinical as a bowling unit. We have to keep bowling dot balls and make them make mistakes. It is not easy for pace bowlers on this track to pick wickets. All of them actually bowled really well."
Shafali Verma is the player of the match for her all-round efforts: "I am always thinking about what team wants and am always ready for that. I was thinking about bowling in good areas. While batting, it was tough because it was coming low. It's all because of the hard work and it [half-century] has come after a long time, so I am happy."
4:28pm India are all but assured of a semi-final spot thanks to the huge win! It ended up being a one-way traffic eventually. Bangladesh would have been hopeful after keeping India to 159 - they were 91 for 0 in the first ten overs - but their batters failed to come to party. The openers Murshida and Fargana were quite slow in taking off and that hurt them. Sultana did well to strike some crucial boundaries in the second half of the chase but it was all a bit too little too late, in the face of some strong, disciplined Indian bowling. Lack of support from other batters meant Bangladesh were nowehere in the reckoning.
Akash: "Shfali verma is Good all round cricketer she can bat can bowl can keep can field. "
Bharat : "It's going to be pretty easy to award the POTM to Shafali Varma"
Salma Khatun.
Lata Mondal b Sharma 1 (4m 2b 0x4 0x6) SR: 50.00
Deepti to bowl the last over.
At 18 years, she is already just the fifth Indian woman to 1000 T20I runs, and the youngest to do so in all of women's cricket
They put up a 96-run first-wicket stand to take India to a strong total as Bangladesh fell 59 short in the chase