New Zealand 160 bits per 4 (Devine 57*, Plimmer 34, Renuka 2-27) India 102 (Mayr 4-19, Tahuhu 3-15, Carson 2-34) 58 runs
New Zealand opened the Women’s T20 World Cup with a 58-run win over pre-tournament champions India, ending a 10-game losing streak in T20Is in the process.
divine show
After seven boundaryless overs, she punished S Asha for four in a row, dancing down the track and smashing it to mid-off once, and once pulling it to deep square leg off the back foot. She kept the scorecard on track and did not spare Renuka Singh’s pace either, hitting four in a row in the 15th over. She found the extra cover boundary to bring up her 21st T20I fifty. Along the way, Devine shared a stand-off of 46 runs off 26 balls with Brooke Halliday for the fourth wicket and gave New Zealand a strong finish.
Plimmer and Bates give New Zealand a good start
New Zealand showed their will early on as Suzie Bates hauled the first ball of the fourth innings to deep square leg to drive her second four past mid-innings. Everyone is out of Pooja Vastrakar. Plimmer, who scored his first T20I fifty against Australia, also unnerved Deepti Sharma in the third over. This included six she came down the track and lofted long on. They also benefited from India’s sloppy fielding. Richa Ghosh dropped Bates with a top edge over the keeper in the last over of the powerplay. The duo brought their team to 50 from 34 balls, hitting five fours and a six to end the powerplay strongly with 55 without losing a wicket and set the platform for a competitive total.
Asha and Reddy apply the brakes.
Both Arundhati Reddy and Asha have been in and out of the India XI this year, but when they got their chance on the big stage on Friday, they delivered. Bowling the last over of the powerplay, Reddy leaked 12 runs. Asha was brought into the attack and started with a boundaryless 6-run over. Returning for the second over, Reddy removed Bates for 27 off the pace and gave India the breakthrough they had been craving. In the next play, Asha threw one and forced a well-prepared Plimmer to step out and tip one into the hands of Smriti Mandhana, a moment marked by a goggle celebration from footballer Leandro Trossard. The pair, who bowled side by side after the powerplay, slowed down New Zealand by conceding just 20 runs from 30 balls from the 7th to 11th innings.
There was no drama in the game.
Kerr and Devine briefly tried to get out off the last ball of the over when the ball was in Harmanpreet’s hands and the ball looked dead. They ran, Harmanpreet threw, Ghosh broke the stumps and Kerr fell well short of getting back to the striker’s end.
Meanwhile, after the first over, bowler Deepti asked the umpire to return his hat and took it with him as well.
The match was stopped for a few minutes while India coach Amol Muzumdar spoke to the fourth umpire. However, the ball was ruled dead, and the run-out dismissal did not count because the ball was not “in play.”
India has changed its approach but is faltering.
Chasing a competitive 161, India lost their top three in the powerplay and the middle order faltered against the difficult lengths of Tahuhu before Mair’s swing caused problems for the lower order. Ghosh made 12 off 19 balls while Deepti got 13 off 18. Harmanpreet’s 15 still remained the highest score.
Srinidhi Ramanujam is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo.
