Indian women's cricket team produced a clinical performance as they thrashed their Bangladeshi counterparts by 72 runs in the opening group league fixture of the ICC World T20, here on Tuesday.
Batting first, India scored a healthy 163 for five with skipper Mithali Raj scoring 42 off 35 balls and the hard-hitting Harmanpreet Kaur smashing 40 off 29 balls with three fours and two huge sixes.
In reply, Bangladesh could only manage 91 for five in 20 overs as they never looked like posing any challenge for the 'Women In Blue'.
Put into bat, skipper Raj and her opening partner VR Vanitha (38, 24 balls, 7x4) added 62 runs for the opening wicket.
Brimming with confidence of being in good nick, the Indian captain started her innings by cracking back-to-back boundaries of Salma Khatun in the second over of the match.
She was picked up by leg-spinner Rumana Ahmed, who foxed the batswoman, who ended up giving a dolly to Jahanara Alam.
With scoreboard reading 95 for 2 in 15th over, Harmanpreet upped the tempo with two sixes — one off Khadija's bowling, hit over long-off and the other one was over deep mid-wicket off leg-break bowler Rumana.
Harmanpreet, however lost her patience and was holed out to deep midwicket after she pulled Rumana into the hands of Nahida.
Veda Krishnamurthy, who remained not out on 36 off 24 balls, walked in at 95 for three in 13.3 overs and stitched a useful 45 runs partnership for fourth wicket in the company of Harmanpreet. In the 19th over, Krishnamurthy hammered two sixes of Fahima Khatun to post the India's total past 150 runs.
In a thoroughly dominating performance right from start to finish, India pushed the vistors into a hole early on by reducing them to 35 for three in 10 overs. None of the Bangladesh batswomen could stitch a worthy partnership which could have steadied the ship.
To their credit, Indian bowlers, especially spinners Anuja Patil and Poonam Yadav, who bagged two wickets each, ensured that the visiting team could never get easy runs.
Brief Scores
India: 163/5 (Mithali Raj 42, Harmanpreet Kaur 40; Fahima Khatun 2/31) beat Bangladesh: 91/5 (Nigar Sultana 27, Anuja Patil 2/16) by 72 runs.