With their highest ever T20 international score in the bank, India cruised to victory over Bangladesh in the opening match of the ICC Word T20 2016 women's tournament.
The match at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, sadly without too many people watching, was rather one-sided, with India posting their highest ever T20I total of 163/5 – beating out the previous best of 151, also against Bangladesh, in 2014. In reply, Bangladesh, still a nascent team in the women's game, did not threaten, finishing well short on 91 for five in their 20 overs to hand India a big 72-run victory.
This opening match of the women's ICC World T20 will be remembered for India's batting, which was quite brilliant from ball one. It was the near-perfect innings really – a solid base from the openers at the top and then the big hitters taking full toll in the end, with some brilliant hitting.
Mithali Raj, the captain, and Vanitha Vellaswamy for India off to a great start, putting on 62 runs together in under eight overs. Vellaswamy was the aggressor-in-chief in that alliance, scoring 38 from just 24 balls, with seven boundaries flowing off that willow.
Once Vellaswamy and No.3 Smriti Mandhana fell in quick succession, Mithali Raj (42, 35b, 5x4) and Harmanpreet Kaur put on a decent 32-run partnership, before Harmanpreet and Veda Krishnamurthy went into tonk-town in some style.
Both batsmen have the ability to hit those big sixes, and they showed it too, smashing the Bangladesh spinners for four maximums, two each from Harmanpreet (40, 29b, 3x4, 2x6) and Krishnamurthy (36 n.o., 24b, 2x6). With the two batsmen finding their hitting rhythm the score kept bulging , going easily past 150, before pushing through the 160-run barrier as well.
From there, the match was as good as done, with the Bangladesh chase just about survival rather than getting anywhere close to India's total.
Get the highlights of India vs Bangladesh HERE
