India’s win over Bangladesh in ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2016 shows immense class

India Women started their ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2016 journey on a high note as they registered a 72-run victory over Bangladesh Women at Bengaluru

India Women started their ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2016 journey on a high note as they registered a 72-run victory over Bangladesh Women in their very first match at M Chinnaswamy Stadium. Bangalore is known be one of the high-scoring grounds of India where the outfield is usually quick. Bangladesh Women won the toss and elected to bowl in search of quick wickets and a low target but the trick backfired and India Women posted a huge score of 163 which was beyond par looking at Bangladesh Women’s current form. Full Cricket Scorecard: India Women vs Bangladesh Women, Women’s T20 World Cup 2016, Match 1 Group B at Bangalore

India Women’s team is a balanced team with both in-touch batsmen and bowlers. Talking about the batting line-up, they have the strong pair of skipper Mithali Raj and VR Vanitha to open. Mithali is one of the most experienced batsman currently in world cricket, while she is in a very good form as well whereas the Bangladesh team mostly consists of young yet talented players. The experience helped the skipper judge the bowlers easily which subsequently resulted in a 42-run innings from her. Mithali was well supported by her partner VR Vanitha who scored 38 off just 24 deliveries. While Mithali played which can be called more of a composed innings, Vanitha went all guns blazing and started hitting from the very start and hit 7 fours in total. READ: India vs Bangladesh, Match 13, ICC Women’s T20 World Cup at Bengaluru: Mithali Raj’s world record and other highlights

Bangladesh seemed to be in the game just for once, during the two back to back wickets of Vanitha and the next in, Smriti Mandhana. Mandhana, who is known to be one of the finest batsmen of the side, could contribute none and departed for a duck facing 4 balls. Mithali also did not stay at the crease for long following the departure of the skipper. But that is where the Indian batting showed its class as the middle-order came to the rescue. The backbone of Indian middle order, Harmanpreet Kaur played brilliantly as usual, building up a partnership with Veda Krishnamurthy. While the Mithali-Vanitha partnership added 62 runs, Harmanpreet and Veda went on to add 41 and took the score beyond 160.

The runs put up by the Indian batsmen were enough to put the opponents under pressure. Not only the target acted as their winning factor, it was the pressure of the huge score, not taking away the credits of the India bowlers, that compelled the Bangladesh batsmen not play their natural game and their innings came to an end with only 95 runs.

(Paulami Chakraborty, a singer, dancer, artist, and photographer, loves the madness of cricket and writes about the game. She can be followed on Twitter at @Polotwitts)