India-W pull off a heist to register a thrilling 8-run win over Bangladesh-W in 2nd T20I

The Indian women’s cricket team pulled off a sensational 8-run win over Bangladesh, defending a 96-run target in the second T20I at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka.

Deepti Sharma (3/12) was the wrecker-in-chief for India, bringing all her experience and guile into play to apply pressure on the Bangladesh batters, and she was ably complemented by Shafali Verma (3/15), Minnu Mani (2/9) and Anusha Bareddy (1/20). 

Opting to bat first, Indian openers Smriti Mandhana and Verma got India off to a decent start, but post the former’s dismissal for 13 in the 5th over, the visitors lost three more wickets inside the space of four overs. 

Verma (19), skipper Harmanpreet Kaur (0) and Yastika Bhatia (11) all departed cheaply, and while Jemimah Rodrigues (8) combined with Harleen Deol (6) to stabilize the ship a little, runs were hard to come by. 

Eventually, a few boundaries did come India’s way, but tight bowling from Bangladesh restricted the Women in Blue to just 95/8 from 20 overs. 

The hosts, chasing a relatively comfortable total, were rocked early, losing both openers with just 12 runs on the board. On a used pitch, the Indian spinners were bound to come into play and that’s exactly what transpired as Bangladesh skipper Nigar Sultana waged a lone battle in vain, her 55-ball 38 receiving no support from any of the other batters as India kept chipping away at the wickets. 

Bangladesh fans housed some hope with 14 runs to get off 12 balls and their skipper at the crease, but Deepti bowled some tight channels and eventually had Sultana stumped off the penultimate ball of the over, eventually ending any chance of the hosts pulling off a win.

To make matters worse, Bangladesh lost their last four wickets in the final over, bowled out for just 87 in their chase of the 96-run target.