137/8 (20.0)
CR : 6.85
155/5 (20.0)
CR : 7.75
New Zealand Women won by 18 runs
Player of the Match
Lea Tahuhu
1/2727(14)
19.6
1
J Kerr to P Yadav
Full toss on off and Poonam drives it to cover for a single to finish the match.
New Zealand win by 18 runs.
New Zealand win by 18 runs.
Over 20
India Women 137/8
Deepti Sharma3(3)
Poonam Yadav1(1)
Jess Kerr2-20(4.0)
NZW won by 18 runs
A comfortable victory for the White Ferns in the end. Winning by 18 runs to take the one-off T20I.
Arya: It was a comfortable victory for the White Ferns in the end in the one-off T20I after the bowlers managed to restrict the Indian middle order and kept chipping away with the wickets to restrict them to 137/8, eventually winning by 18 runs. Despite a solid opening partnership between Shafali Verma and Yastika Bhatia, India fell behind the nine ball and had to play catch up through the majority of the innings.
Yastika Bhatia looked in good touch and played some delightful shots. Shafali Verma was also looking set and played some impressive shots during her brief stay. A 40 runs partnership ended when Bhatia was dismissed round the legs by Amelia Kerr. It was a fantastic googly which turned quite a tip to strike timbers.
Verma also followed her partner to the pavilion soon after and all of a sudden, New Zealand were up and running. Sabbhineni Meghana and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur tried to resurrect the run-chase and started building a platform before an exceptional inswinger from Lea Tahuhu sent the skipper back to the pavilion.
Arya: Meghana and Richa Ghosh did find the boundaries in the middle overs to keep the scoreboard ticking along. The required rate was over 10 but they were finding the boundaries. However, the scoreboard pressure finally got to India as they lost some crucial wickets and never looked like chasing the target down.
Both Meghana and Richa Ghosh was dismissed in quick intervals and New Zealand were all over India. Eventually, Simran struck some boundaries in the end to get the score upto 136, eventually falling well short by 19 runs.
Earlier in the day, it was the Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur who won the toss and put the hosts in. The White Ferns got off to a sensational start courtesy the opening pair of Suzie Bates and Sophie Devine. The White Ferns skipper looked in great touch and raced off to 31 in 23 deliveries which included a couple of fours and a couple of sixes. A partnership of 60 runs came to an end in the 8th over when Deepti Sharma induced a false shot from Devine's bat.
Amelia Kerr took 20 deliveries to score 17 as run-scoring wasn't easy but Maddy Green looked in good touch and struck some important boundaries. However, the final impetus was provided by Lea Tahuhu as she struck some big heaves across the line and found the boundaries on a consistent basis. A score of 150 was always going to be difficult for India to chase down and eventually New Zealand seals it comfortably by 18 runs.Player of the Match Lea Tahuhu: "Not really surprising for me to bat at 5, but surprised with the run-out chances. We talked about it during the Super Smash. We thought we would give it a go here as well. It was important to get a win for this group. Feels good to get over the line today."
India Women's skipper Harmanpreet Kaur: "We were in the game when we were bowling but unfortunately some last over didn't go well and when we came to bat losing 2 wickets in one over created some trouble, but still we'll learn from our mistake and came back stronger."
New Zealand Women's skipper Sophie Devine: "It feels awesome to lift the cup. It's been a while that we've won a series. We played brilliantly and it's the blueprint of how we want to play T20 cricket. I guess we were able to lay a foundation for Lea Tahuhu. We executed our plans well. T20 to ODI isn't a difficult change. It's just that everything is lengthened. Good start, but the real work starts now."
That is all we have from the commentary box today. Till the next time it's ta-ta and a warm good morning to all our viewers from me (Arya Sekhar Chakraborty) and my co-commentators Ajay Singh and Jatin Sachdeva.