Women's T20 WC: New Zealand thrash India by 58 runs as skipper does star turn
Dubai, Oct 4: A completely out of sorts India were trumped by opposition skipper Sophie Devine's flamboyant batting and tactical astuteness as New Zealand powered to 58-run win in a lopsided Women's T20 World Cup game here on Friday.
The 'White Ferns' also put an end to their 10-match losing streak with their biggest win against India in T20Is.
On a pitch which was extremely difficult for batting, Devine's power-packed unbeaten 57 off 36 balls took New Zealand to an above-par 160 for 4 in 20 overs.
The 35-year-old Kiwi legend then used her slow bowlers to first choke the 'Women in Blue' and then asked her seamers to take pace off deliveries blowing the opposition for a meagre 102 in 19 overs.
The difference between two sides was brute power, a mandatory requirement on such surfaces, which Devine and her two openers Suzie Bates and Georgia Plimmer possessed. For India, most of their batters didn't have enough muscle to even clear the 30-yard circle.
The game for all practical reasons was won and lost in the Powerplay. While Bates (27 off 24 balls) and young Plimmer (34 off 23 balls) added 55 in the first six overs, India lost their three potential game-changers, Shafali Verma (2), Smriti Mandhana (12) and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur (15) in the Powerplay for only 43 runs.
The best part about Devine was that the batter in her understood what the skipper required to do. She started with left-arm spinner Eden Carson (2/34 in 4 overs) from one end and Shafali, who is never comfortable if pace is taken off deliveries, closed her bat face and a simple return catch lobbed to the bowler.
Mandhana, India's best and most consistent batter over the past few years, also tried to get going and was holed out in the deep while seamer Rosemary Mair (4/19 in 4 overs) bowled one that swung in to hit Harmanpreet on the pads.
Such was the slowness that even Lea Tahuhu (3/15 in 4 overs) had Jemimah Rodrigues trying to chip it over mid-on but the stroke lacked power and Richa Ghosh chipped one to mid-off as the Indian challenge fizzled out in a jiffy.
Earlier, on a sticky track where stroke-making was difficult, Devine muscled her way with seven boundaries as most Indian bowlers sans Deepti Sharma (0/45 in 4 overs) used the tackiness of the track to good effect for the better part of the innings.
Devine, who dropped herself in the batting order, displayed excellent footwork to dismantle the length bowled by Indian bowlers with the standout shot being a bent on knee cover-drive off Shreyanka Patil to complete her fifty.
One thing that stuck out like a sore thumb was poor ground fielding from India save Rodrigues, who was brilliant as usual in the deep.
Veteran Bates and young Plimmer rode their luck and some shoddy fielding from India to race to 55 at the end of the Powerplay.
However once leg-spinner Asha Sobhana (1/22 in 4 overs) started operating just after Powerplay, she immediately put brakes but once Devine started chancing her arms at the death, Indian bowlers were left with little option.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Mohsin's fifer helps LSG restrict KKR to 155/7 despite Rinku's 83
Lucknow (PTI): Lucknow Super Giants pacer Mohsin Khan added another sordid chapter to Kolkata Knight Riders' batting woes, taking five wickets to restrict the three-time champions to a modest 155 for seven in their IPL match here on Sunday.
Mohsin’s 5 for 23, a personal best for the left-arm pacer in this format, tore apart an already struggling KKR batting unit, as he snaffled the cream wickets of Ajinkya Rahane, Tim Seifert, Cameron Green, Rovman Powell and Anukul Roy.
Rinku Singh (83 not out, 51 balls) made a well-paced fifty and punished Mohammed Shami in the 19th over for 6, 4, 4 and the smoked four sixes in a row against spinner Digvesh Rathi as KKR made 43 runs in the last two overs to go past the 150-run mark.
But his fifty remained a lone act, as Mohsin firmly stood in the limelight.
His bowling ethos were rooted in simple tactics — bang the ball into the black soil pitch to gain bounce or use cutters at various pace to keep the batters guessing.
Mohsin, who started the night with a wicket maiden, showed his variety across two dismissals.
He followed Rahane with a fuller ball as the batter tried to go over the covers, but the ball’s trajectory forced the KKR skipper to just slice the ball up for a simple catch for Aiden Markram.
The 27-year-old stayed calm when Green, who looked comfortable out there while smashing George Linde for two successive sixes, slammed him for a huge maximum.
Two balls later, Mohsin dug one short, challenging Green (34) to go for the pull and the Australian all-rounder took the bait.
The into-the-body angle worked again as Green could only sky the ball to wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant.
Green’s ouster also ended a fifth wicket alliance worth 42 with Rinku Singh.
Bizarre dismissal of Raghuvanshi
=====================
If the existing turmoil was not enough, KKR had to bear the dejection of seeing Angkrish Raghuvanshi getting dismissed obstructing the field.
On the final ball of the fifth over from Prince Yadav, Raghuvanshi nudged one towards mid-on and set off for a single, only to be rejected by Green.
Raghuvanshi put in a dive to save himself but he came in the line of the throw from Shami.
Subsequently, third umpire Rohit Pandit accepted LSG’s appeal and decided that the batter’s turning radius was more than required, eventually resulting in the batter’s dismissal in a rare manner.
