Poor shot selection and lack of patience to stay and stitch partnerships paved the way for India’s 31-run drubbing against the West Indies in the second Twenty20 cricket match at Mulapadu on Sunday.
Disastrous start
After restricting the visitor to 137, India was off a disastrous start with the top order — barring skipper Harmanpreet Kaur (43, 37b, 3x6, 1x4) — not striving to lay a platform for a calculative assault during the later stage of the match.
Harmanpreet came in at the fall of Veda Krishnamurthy with India struggling at 36 for three. She ploughed a lone furrow, but to her dismay, her partners kept playing indiscreet strokes, often often going for the extravagant ones. The batswomen failed to get a measure of the length of the ball and the West Indies fielders brought off a couple of stunning catches like the one by Shamilia Connell at deep mid-wicket which saw the back of Jhulan Goswami.
Earlier put into bat, West Indies scored 137 for five in the allotted 20 overs. The last over by Ekta Bisht proved crucial as she succeeded in dismissing both the well-set Stefanie Taylor and Merissa Aguilleira, thus preventing a final assault by the visitor.
The two partnerships between Stefanie and Deandra Dottin (48 runs off 40 balls) and Stefanie and Merissa (48 off 35) saw the West Indies posting a respectable total. Stefanie (47, 46b, 4x4), who played a sheet anchor’s role in Friday’s win, waged a lone battle till the last ball while opener Hayley Matthews was in her elements as she dealt only in boundaries.
The last match of the three-match series will be played on Tuesday.
The scores:
West Indies: Hayley Matthews c Harmanpreet b Shikha 27; Stefanie Taylor c Jhulan b Ekta 47; Britney Cooper c Meghana b Deepti 5; Deandra Dottin c Anuja b Shikha 35; Merissa Aguilleira (run out) 21, Kycia Knight (not out) 0; Extras (lb-2): 2; Total (for five wkts. in 20 overs): 137.
Fall of wickets: 1-35, 2-41, 3-89, 4-137, 5-137.
India bowling: Jhulan Goswami 4-0-27-0; Anuja Patil 3-0-17-0; Ekta Bisht 4-0-26-1; Shikha Pandey 4-0-29-2; Deepti Sharma 4-0-27-1; Preeti Bose 1-0-9-0.
India: Smriti Mandhana c Cooper b Selman 4; S. Meghana lbw b Hayley 17; Deepti Sharma c & b Anisa 24; Veda Krishnamurthy b Hayley 5; Harmanpreet Kaur c Shaquana b Dottin 43; Shikha Pandey c Shaquana b Anisa 5; Anuja Patil lbw b Anisa 0; Jhulan Goswami c Connell b Dottin 3; Ekta Bisht c Cooper b Dottin 0; Nuzhat Parween c Anisa b Shaquana 1; Preeti Bose (not out) 2; Extras (lb-2): 2; Total (in 18.1 overs): 106.
Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-29, 3-37, 4-59, 5-73, 6-74, 7-80, 8-80, 9-87.
West Indies bowling: Shakera Selman 3-0-22-1, Deandra Dottin 3.1-0-24-3, Hayley Matthews 4-1-15-2, Anisa Mohammed 4-0-23-3, Shaquana Quintyne 4-0-22-1.
Toss: India.
Results:West Indies won by 31 runs.
