India 156 for 5 (Hemalatha 37, Mandhana 33, Harmanpreet 30, Nahida 2-27, Rabeya 2-28) beat Bangladesh 135 for 6 (Moni 37, Radha 3-24, Asha 2-25) by 21 runs
Radha, on her comeback for India after being off the national radar for a year, ended the series as the most successful bowler with ten wickets, which got her the Player-of-the-Series award to go with the Player-of-the-Match award for her three-wicket haul on Thursday.
Coming off a 2-1 T20I series defeat at home against Australia, India will be happy to have produced a convincing series victory in Bangladesh, where the T20 World Cup will be held in October. Bangladesh, though, have now lost eight T20Is in a row now, five here and three earlier against Australia, all at home.
But, despite losing five wickets by the halfway stage in the chase, Bangladesh went past the 120-run mark for the first time in the series, thanks to Moni’s 33-ball 37 and Shorifa’s unbeaten 28 from 21 balls. However, there was little of note from the other batters.
Titas Sadhu gave India their first breakthrough when she removed Sobhana Mostary for a nine-ball 13 in the third over. In the next over, Radha struck, dismissing Dilara Akter as she miscued a pull to mid-off. Radha’s third double-wicket over of the series came in the ninth of the innings when she knocked out Nigar Sultana’s stump with a loopy delivery that spun in, and three balls later, she trapped Rubya Haider lbw for 20. After that over, she had figures of 2-0-4-3. She finished with 3 for 24 after being targeted by Moni and Shorifa.
After ten overs, Bangladesh were 52 for 5, needing 105 from the remaining 60 balls.
But Moni fought back. She charged down the track against the spinners, used width when it was on offer to score towards backward point, and played a ramp shot to Pooja Vastrakar as well. With Shorifa , she shared a 57-run partnership off 41 balls for the sixth wicket, bringing the equation down to 53 runs from 24 balls. However, S Asha, playing her second T20I, dismissed Moni in the 17th over to end Bangladesh’s hopes. Asha finished with 2 for 25 from her four overs.
#Match #Report #BANW #INDW #5th #T20I