(Cricket news) After losing the 1st warm up game against Australia, India women came back with a comprehensive win over Bangladesh. The women in blue were coming into the game a little low on confidence having lost two matches back to back and that too consecutively. India women captain Harmanpreet Kaur and her deputy Smriti Mandhana didn’t take the field as Deepti Sharma captained the side. India women won the toss and elected to bat first as they needed some of their batters to find form before the mega tournament kicked off.

It was Yastika Bhatia and Shafali Verma who opened the batting but both were dismissed without troubling the scorers that much. Richa Ghosh came into bat at number 4 in absence of Harmanpreet Kaur and played a magnificent knock of 91 from just 56 balls. The keeper hit 3 fours and 9 sixes in her unbeaten innings to anchor India women’s innings. She was well supported by Jemimah Rodrigues who batted a 5. Rodrigues scored 41 off just 27 balls hitting 6 boundaries and a maximum. Pooja Vastrakar showed good signs as she played a decent cameo scoring an unbeaten 13 off 4 balls.

India used 7 bowlers to defend a stiff target of 184. Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Anjali Sarvani, Deepti Sharma, Radha Yadav and Shafali Verma all chipped in with a wicket. Wrist spinner Devika Vaidya got 2 scalps as Bangladesh could only manage 131/8 in 20 overs. The performance is definitely encouraging from India’s point of view and it has come at the right time. There are still a couple of doubts going into the tournament but overall the team looks good. India women are in a group with Pakistan, West Indies, England and Ireland for the T20 World Cup. Their first game will be a big one against familiar rivals Pakistan.

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