Mirpur, July 11: Spinners Deepti Sharma and Shafali Verma held their nerves during death overs as India pulled off a nail-biting eight-run victory over Bangladesh to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match T20I series, here on Tuesday.
Off-spinner Sultana Khatun claimed a career-best 3/21 as the hosts grounded a star-studded India to a below-par 95 for 8, their lowest-ever total against Bangladesh in the women’s T20I.
However Bangladesh stumbled to 87 all-out in 20 overs as India took a series-clinching lead with an inconsequential third match set to be played on Thursday. From a comfortable 86 for 5, Bangladesh lost their last five wickets for just one run in a space of eight deliveries in what seemed to be an inexplicable batting collapse.
The two young Indian spinners– offie Minnu Mani (4-1-9-2) and left-arm orthodox Anusha Bareddy (1/20 in 4 overs) made early inroads before the seasoned duo of Deepti (3/12) and Shafali (3/15) pulled off a heist with controlled bowling in the 19th and 20th over.
Shafali in fact got all her wickets in the final over in which she gave away only solitary run when 10 were needed with four wickets intact.
Bangladesh’s chase was steered by skipper Nigar Sultana (38; 55b) – the only batter of their side to reach double-digits.
But the skipper failed to finish it off and was brilliantly stumped by Yastika Bhatia in the penultimate over bowled by Deepti that triggered the collapse.
Earlier, eyeing an unassailable 2-0 lead, India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur opted to bat as they were off to a flyer with Smriti Mandhana (13; 13b) and Shafali (19; 14b) adding 33 in 26 balls before visitors lost half of their side for 58 runs just after the 14th over started.
Sultana took the two key wickets of Shafali and Harmanpreet off successive deliveries as Bangladesh fought back after an early assault from the Indian openers. (PTI)
