Ahmedabad: With the all-round play of captain Sophie Devine, New Zealand made a brilliant comeback by defeating India by 76 runs in the second women’s ODI of the three-match series here on Sunday. Devine took three wickets for 27 runs after playing a brilliant inning of 79 runs in 86 balls. Also clicked. For India, Radha Yadav scored 48 runs after taking four wickets, but her efforts proved insufficient for the team. Batting first, New Zealand women’s team, after scoring 259 runs for nine wickets, reduced India’s innings to 183 in 47.1 overs. The series was leveled at 1-1 by scoring runs. The third and deciding match of the series will be played on Tuesday.
Radha Yadav’s all-round game
The Indian team was heading towards an embarrassing defeat after losing eight wickets for 108 runs, but Radha Yadav and Saima Thakor (29)’s 70-run partnership for the ninth wicket saved the team from defeat by a huge margin. Apart from Divine, Lia Tahuhu also took three wickets while Jess Kerr and Eden Carson got two wickets each.
Devine scored 79 runs in 86 balls with the help of seven fours and one six. She made an important partnership of 82 runs for the fifth wicket with Maddy Green (42 runs on 41 balls) to take New Zealand to a big score.
Radha took four wickets, but she also gave away 69 runs. Deepti Sharma got two successes while Priya Mishra and Saima got one success each. Chasing the target, Tahuhu dismissed Smriti Mandhana without opening the account in the first over itself, while Jess Kerr trapped Shefali Verma (11) LBW.
Tahuhu got Yastika Bhatia (12) caught by wicketkeeper Gage Isabelle Gage. Even before the partnership between captain Harmanpreet Kaur (24) and Jemimah Rodrigues (17) could become dangerous, Divine dismissed both of them and reduced India’s score to 77 runs for five wickets.
Same thing happened with the partnership of Tejal Hasbanis and Deepti Sharma. Eden Carson dismissed Hasbanis in the 25th over and Tahuhu dismissed Deepti in the 26th over to take the match out of India’s grip. Both contributed 15-15 runs. Arundhati Reddy (02) became Carson’s second victim.
After this, Radha and Saima batted courageously and prolonged New Zealand’s wait for victory. The 70-run partnership between the two was broken by Jess Kerr by dismissing Saima. Saima hit three fours in his 54-ball innings.
Radha hit five fours in 64 balls before being caught by Laurin Down off Divine’s ball. Before coming to bat, New Zealand’s openers Suzie Bates (58 runs on 70 balls) and Plimmer (41 runs on 50 balls) gave a great start to the team by making a partnership of 87 runs in 16 overs.
However, India made a good comeback after this by taking three wickets. Radha gave India its first success by taking an excellent catch of Georgia Plimmer off Deepti’s ball. Radha contributed to the first four wickets of New Zealand. With another brilliant catch, she got Priya Mishra the first wicket of Brooke Halliday in international cricket. However, the pair of Devine and Green were successful in increasing the run rate after this. Green put the Indian bowlers under pressure by hitting five fours.