India’s bowlers beautifully complemented the striking fifty-fives made by captain Harmanpreet Kaur and Richa Ghosh as they amassed a comprehensive 78-run victory over UAE in their second encounter of the ongoing women’s Asia Cup T20 event here on Sunday.
Inviting to bat, Kaur performed brilliantly as the anchor with a 47-ball 66, while Ghosh mounted a late comeback with an undefeated 29-ball 64 to propel the reigning champions India to 201 for five—their first-ever 200+ score in Twenty20 Internationals.
India advanced to the semifinals after the bowlers, led by Deepti Sharma (2/23), put up a clinical display to restrict the UAE to 123 for 7.
India leads group A with four points, a Net Run Rate of +3.298, and two victories in as many games.
On Tuesday, India will play their third and final group match against Nepal.
Opening batsman Esha Rohit Oza made a brilliant 38 off 36 balls (5×4, 1×6) to chase down the intimidating total, but UAE was never in the hunt as they continued to lose wickets at regular intervals.
Renuka Singh (1/30) and Pooja Vastrakar (1/27) dismissed Theertha Satish (4) and Rinitha Rajith (7) with great pace, reducing the United Arab Emirates to 24 for 2 in 5.2 overs.
Samaira Dharnidharka (5) was removed by Deepti with her third ball after she struck, but Oza and Kavisha Egodage (40 not out) played some interesting smashes to score 20 runs in the next three overs.
But as the UAE collapsed to 95 for five in the 16th over, Tanuja Kanwar (1/14), who had come in for the injured Shreyanka Patil in the playing XI, had Oza stumped and Radha Yadav (1/29) had dismissed Khushi Sharma (10).
The UAE finished well short of India’s total as Heena Hotchandani became Deepti’s second victim and Rithika was out in the final ball.
Earlier, Ghosh hammered as many as 12 boundaries and a maximum, including five straight knocks to the fence in Hotchandani’s last over of the innings, while Harmanpreet, 35, smashed seven fours and a six throughout her innings.
In order to give India a dominating lead, Kaur cobbled together two vital partnerships: 54 off 39 balls with Jemimah Rodrigues and 75 off 45 balls with Ghosh.
India had a strong start thanks to opener Smriti Mandhana (13), who hit a six and a four before being caught at mid-off by spinner Egodage in the third over due to an overly ambitious stroke.
Then, Shafali Verma unleashed some incredible shots, hitting five fours and a six on his way to an eighteen-ball 37. However, she made the error of edging a short, wide ball from seamer Dharnidharka, leaving the keeper to finish the job.
After that, Hotchandani dismissed Dayalan Hemalatha (2) in the opening delivery of the subsequent over, allowing India to drop to 52 for 3 during the powerplay.
After that, Harmanpreet and Rodrigues (14) got together to keep the scoreboard moving. The former did most of the heavy lifting during their 39-ball, 54-run partnership, which helped India reach 100 in the eleventh over.
Once Rodrigues was dismissed by Egodage in the 12th over, Ghosh displayed her boundary-hitting prowess, using her cover drive to perfection to rack up 18 runs off Oza’s over with four boundaries.
After Harmanpreet got her fifty in the eighteenth over, India passed the 180-run mark thanks to two fours and a six against Samaira.
Ghosh hit five fours in the final five balls to reach her fifty, her first in the shortest format, after Harmanpreet was out in the first ball of the 19th over.
In just 26 balls, Ghosh achieved her fifty, and she extracted 20 runs in the final over alone.
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