Smriti Mandhana remained an unstoppable juggernaut with a record-smashing half century but the Indian women\u2019s cricket team failed to make it count, going down by 23 runs in the opening T20 International against New Zealand here Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mandhana held the record for the fastest fifty by an Indian before the match and she bettered it by a ball during her 58-run knock at the WestPac Stadium. The 22-year-old faced 34 balls in all but reached the 50-mark off 24 deliveries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, New Zealand pacer Lea Tahuhu played a decisive role with three scalps off her four overs to derail India\u2019s pursuit of a 160-run target which was going smoothly till the time Mandhana was at the crease. India eventually folded for 136 in 19.1 overs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Leg-spinner Amelia Kerr (2\/28) clinched the crucial wickets of Mandhana and Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur to wreck the visitors\u2019 chances. Off-spinner Leigh Kasperek also picked up a couple of wickets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cObviously we didn\u2019t get the start we wanted but it was pretty good to come back and win. It\u2019s just about keeping calm,\u201d said Tahuhu, who was adjudged player of the match for her performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think bowlers did really well as we expected. We didn\u2019t bat well in the last 10 overs. That is only area where we are always struggling,\u201d she pointed out. Veteran Mithali Raj, who captains the Indian ODI side, was dropped from the match. \u201cWe are looking to give chance to young girls, that is the only reason,\u201d said Harmanpreet when asked about Mithali\u2019s absence from the line-up and whether her experience would have come handy here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The next game of the series is scheduled to be held in Auckland on Friday. Mandhana and Jemiamah Rodrigues combined for a 102-run second-wicket stand that should have been a solid foundation for the rest of the line-up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From 101\/1, the visiting team was down to 117\/6 in a matter of five overs that turned the match on its head. Harmanpreet played out a small cameo, including a massive six off Kerr, but couldn\u2019t steer the team home, failing to find any support at the other end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mandhana was her usual aggressive self and played another strokeful knock, studded with seven hits to the fence and three sixes. The 22-year-old is enjoying a stellar run of form and was recently adjudged the ICC\u2019s woman cricketer of the year. Earlier, opening batswoman Sophie Devine smashed a 48-ball 62 in an enterprising innings to take New Zealand women to a challenging 159 for 4 from 20 overs after being put into bat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Devine\u2019s aggressive innings was laced with six boundaries and two sixes. She and captain Amy Satterthwaite (33 off 27 balls) shared a 69-run stand for the third wicket to steer New Zealand out of trouble after a stuttering start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Spinners Radha Yadav and Poonam Yadav dimissed Suzie Bates (7) and Caitlin Gurrey (15) cheaply to reduce the home side to 47 for 2 at the end of the seventh over. But the Indians failed to make further dents with Devine and Satterthwaite denying them any success for 8.3 overs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Smriti Mandhana remained an unstoppable juggernaut with a record-smashing half century but the Indian women\u2019s cricket team failed to make it count, going down by 23 runs in the opening T20 International against New Zealand here Wednesday. Mandhana held the record for the fastest fifty by an Indian before the match and she bettered it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":54433,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54432"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54434,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54432\/revisions\/54434"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}