IND-W vs BAN-W: India pocket T20 series with a 5-0 clean sweep

Indian women’s cricket team beat Bangladesh women’s team by 21 runs to win the fifth T20 international and pocket the series with a 5-0 sweep.

The architects of an Indian win were Richa Ghosh, who scored an unbeaten 28 off 17 balls, and Radha Yadav, who ran through the Bangladesh top-order returning with figures of 3/24.

Batting first, India scored 156/5 in 20 overs and restricted Bangladesh to 135/6 at the Sylhet International Stadium on Thursday.

Chasing 157, Bangladesh started on a cautious note but were soon put on the backfoot by left-arm spinner Radha. Ritu Moni (37 off 33b, 4x4) and Shorifa Khatun (28* off 21b, 3x4) tried to resurrect the innings, but the target was too steep for the hosts in the end.

Moni and Shorifa put in 57 runs for the sixth wicket to lead a small fightback but in the end, the Indian bowlers held their nerve to emerge victorious.

Leg-spinner Asha Sobhana (2/25) broke the resilient partnership between Moni and Khatun when she bowled Moni in the 17th over to push Bangladesh to a wall.

Bangladesh found no answers to Radha’s questions and were reeling at 52/5 in 10 overs but Moni and Khatun staged a small recovery act, only to falter towards the end.

It was Titas Sadhu who got the first breakthrough when Radha took a blinder to dismiss Sobhana Mostary (13). Mostary was fluent and looked in fine touch when she scored three boundaries in Pooja Vastrakar’s first over to set the tone.

Dilara Akter fell soon after to Vastrakar and then Rahda got into the act when she accounted for Nigar Sultana. She then had Rubya Haider (20) trapped in front of the stumps in the same over to derail Bangladesh.

Batting first, Richa Ghosh hit three fours and one six in her knock of 28 to help India to a competitive 156/5 in their 20 overs.

Harmanpreet Kaur (30) and Dayalan Hemalatha (37) put on 60 runs for the third wicket and couldn’t capitalise on their starts, as did Smriti Mandhana, who scored 33 off just 25 balls. However, a late impetus from Richa helped India breach the 150-run mark.

Radha finished as the highest wicket-taker in the series with 10 wickets, while Smiri scored 116 runs in the series to become the most run getter in the five-match series.