Smriti Mandhana has been in excellent form in recent times and yesterday's half-century was her eighth in the last 10 ODI innings
Smriti Mandhana
Opener Smriti Mandhana led the chase for India with familiar panache after a feisty bowling performance steered the side to a series-clinching eight-wicket triumph over New Zealand in the second one-dayer here yesterday.
ADVERTISEMENT
Opting to field, India produced an excellent effort to bowl out New Zealand for a paltry 161 in 44.2 overs before player of the match Mandhana (90 not out) and skipper Mithali Raj (63 not out) stitched a 151-run unbroken third-wicket stand to guide the team to an easy win. The duo resurrected the Indian run chase from 15-2 after the early loss of opener Jemimah Rodrigues (0) and Deepti Sharma (8).
"It feels great but I think our bowlers deserved the player of the match award more than me. I will give it away [award] to our bowlers, they did a great job to restrict New Zealand on a good wicket," Mandhana said at the post-match presentation.
Mandhana has been in excellent form in recent times and yesterday's half century was her eighth in the last 10 ODI innings. She hit 105 in the first match of the ongoing series.
Yesterday, she took just 82 deliveries in her unbeaten knock of 90. Raj, on the other hand, faced 111 deliveries in her sedate knock 63. But, she was a perfect counterfoil to the aggressive Mandhana. Raj completed the run chase in style with a six as India reached 166 for two in 35.2 overs.
India have now taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match contest, which is part of the ICC Women's Championship series. The visiting side beat New Zealand in the first ODI by nine wickets at the same venue on January 24. The third and final match of the series will be held in Hamilton on February 1. Just like the first match, India opted to field and shot New Zealand out for a paltry 161 with senior pacer Jhulan Goswami grabbing 3-23 to lead the Indian bowling charge.
The spin trio of Ekta Bisht, Poonam Yadav and Deepti Sharma, who had tormented New Zealand in India's nine-wicket win in the first ODI, took two wickets each to stifle the Kiwi innings yet again. NZ captain Amy Satterthwaite top-scored with 71 before she became Yadav's first victim in the 34th over.
Catch up on all the latest sports news and updates here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates
This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
