Canterbury: The Indian Women’s cricket team posted a record total of 333 runs against England with the help of skipper Harmanpreet Kaur’s dominating innings of unbeaten 143 runs on Wednesday.
Harleen Deol bagged her maiden ODI half-century by scoring 58 runs in the first innings. Harmanpreet Kaur led from the front playing an innings of a lifetime.
After being invited to bat first by England, India lost opener Shafali Verma in the second over, as the batter once again failed to secure a big inning. The batter struck two boundaries in the first over and looked set for a big score but was clean bowled by Kate Cross.
Kate made an excellent start to her 50th ODI, dismissing Shafali in her first over for eight runs, leaving India at 12/1 in the second over of the match.
Yastika Bhatia made her way to the crease and stitched an important 54-run partnership with the in-form Smriti Mandhana to deny any wicket to the hosts till the 10th over, taking the score a healthy 60/1 at the 10-over mark. Both the batters kept the scoreboard ticking at a good rate, scoring boundaries regularly.
Mandhana in the process also completed 3000 ODI runs and became the fastest Indian woman to get there.
The Indian captain clinched her 18th ODI fifty in the 37th over of the match of Dean’s bowling. Her batting partner Deol also followed in the footsteps of the captain and secured her maiden ODI fifty with a conservative single towards mid-wicket in the next over.
(With Agency Inputs)