India Women vs New Zealand Women 2019: 1st T20I, Wellington - Match Report

India Women vs New Zealand Women 2019: 1st T20I, Wellington – Match Report; The home side fans finally got to see their cricketers putting a cracking show against the visitors, Indians. They have outsmarted Indians convincingly in all sections of the game to go 1-0 up in the 3-match T20I series. Sophie Devine was the star performer alongside Lea Tahuhu.

1st Innings:

Initially, it was Indian women, who won the toss and opted to bowl first. Justifying the toss decision, Radha Yadav produced an early wicket by removing Suzie Bates for 11 runs on the board. She was followed by the number 3 batswoman Gurrey, who was bowled by Poonam Yadav.

Then came the steady 69-run partnership between Sophie Devine and Amy Satterthwaite. They both kept Indian women chasing the leather more often than not. Devine was fluent with her strokes while Amy was decent in rotating the strike.

However, Indian made a return in the innings by removing both the settled batswomen in a difference of 5 runs. Despite that, Kiwis got the nice breezy knock of 27 runs from the wicketkeeper Katie Martin, which pushed total to 159 on the board.

For India, Poonam Yadav, Arundathi Reddy, Radha Yadav and Deepti Sharma picked one wicket each. In batting, Devine finished with 62 while Satterthwaite knocked 33 in 27 balls.

2nd Innings:

In reply, India lost Priya Punia for 4 runs on the board. However, they got a scintillating 98-run partnership for the second wicket between Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues to reach the 100-run mark in 11th over of the chase.

Just when everyone expected that it was a cake-walk for the team, then came the beautiful spell from Lea Tahuhu, who changed the course of the game. The wicket of Mandhana saw an opening for the dramatic collapse.

From 103/2 in 11.2 overs, they have been packed for 136 runs in 19.1 overs. It really sums up the story of Indian Women problem in the middle-order. Harmanpreet Kaur hung in the middle for a period of time but failed to guide the team to the victory.

For Kiwis, Lea Tahuhu was the pick of the bowlers with 3 wickets. Kasperek and Kerr finished with a couple of wickets each while Mair, Devine and Satterthwaite bagged 1 wicket apiece.

Brief Scores:

New Zealand – 159/4 (Devine 62, Satterthwaite 33; Deepti 1/19)

India – 136-all-out (Mandhana 58, Rodrigues 39; Tahuhu 3/20)