Mumbai: India registered a comfortable 64-run win over Bangladesh in the opening match of the Asian Cricket Council’s (ACC) women’s Twenty-20 Asia Cup at the Asian Institute of Technology ground in Bangkok on today.
After losing the toss, India was put into bat by Bangladesh. India
scored 118/6 in 20 overs. The team led by Harpreet Kaur was clinical with the ball as well, as Bangladesh was bowled out for 54 runs by the Indian bowlers. Indian leggie Poonam Yadav led the bowling attack by picking up three wickets while experienced pacer Jhulan Goswami and off spinner Anuja Patil took two wickets each.
Shaila Sharmin (18) and Salma Khatun (17) were the top scorers for Bangladesh. The Bangladeshi batting collapsed like a house of cards as its eight batswomen failed to reach even double figures out of which six of them returned to the pavilion scoring only one run each.
For India, senior batswoman Mithali Raj played a respectable knock of 49 while building a solid opening partnership of 70 runs with Smriti Mandhana (41), ensuring India of a respectable score on the board. The partnership got the team the start it was looking for.
For Bangladesh, Khadija Tul Kubra took two wickets while Jahanara Alam and Ritu Moni took one wicket each. India, whose participation in the tournament was under doubt due to simmering tensions between India and arch-rivals Pakistan, will be playing the host Thailand tomorrow. It remains to be seen whether an Indo-Pak clash is on the cards on November 29. It will be the mother of all clashes.
In the other match of the day, Pakistan began its campaign with an emphatic win over Nepal by nine wickets.
Summarised Score: India 118/6 in 20 overs (Raj 49*, Mandhana 41; Kubra 2/12) beat Bangladesh 54 all out in 18.2 overs (Sharmin 18; Yadav 3/13) by 64 runs