The Indian women's team produced yet another clinical performance in Cape Town on Wednesday as they crushed the West Indies by 7 wickets to register their second successive win in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2023.
Chasing a modest 119 for victory, India rode on brilliant knocks from the in-form Richa Ghosh and captain Harmanpreet Kaur to cross the finish line in the 19th over of their Group B match.
Ghosh remained unbneaten on 44 while Kaur made 33 off 42 balls in their fourth-wicket partnership worth 72 off 65 balls.
Richa Ghosh continues good form
India were in a spot of bother at 2 for 35 when they lost both openers Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma within 8 deliveries of each other.
Mandhana, who missed the first game against Pakistan due to a finger injury, made 10 while Verma got out for a 23-ball 28.
But Ghosh and Kaur steadied the ship with their composed batting and kept rotating the strike, also finding the occasional boundary in every over.
Ghosh smacked five boundaries while Kaur hit three during their match-winning stand. Ghosh in fact, finished the match with a four as India joined England on four points from two games.
The Windies meanwhile, have now lost 13 T20Is on the trot which is the most in succession for them in the format.
Deepti Sharma completes record 100
Earlier, off-spinner Deepti Sharma starred with the ball to help India restrict the opposition to 118 for 6 in 20 overs after West Indies won the toss and elected to bat first.
Sharma bagged 3 wickets for 15 runs from her four overs to become the most successful bowler for India in T20Is.
She is the first bowler in men's or women's cricket to take 100 wickets in the format for India and the ninth female to achieve the feat.
Sharma picked the wickets of the well-set Stafanie Taylor (42) and Shemaine Campbelle (30) in the same over to break the backbone of the Windes batting lineup.
It was all downhill from there onwards as they collapsed from 77 for 1 to 115 for 6 and eventually ended up with a below-par score on a goot batting track at the Newlands.
Renuka Singh and Pooja Vastrakar took a wicket each to cap off a splendid bowling performance from the Women in Blue.
(To receive our E-paper on WhatsApp daily, please click here.  To receive it on Telegram, please click here. We permit sharing of the paper's PDF on WhatsApp and other social media platforms.)
