With Smriti’s awesome boundaries and sixes, Indian women cricket team wins three-match series against West Indies

Antigua, November 7: Indian women cricketers hoisted tricolor flag on far-away islands by winning the three match series 2-1 against West Indies. India beat the West Indies by 6 wickets in the third and final ODI match in North Sound, Antigua last night.

 

With an impressive inning of 74 off 63 balls by Smriti Mandhana, Indian women achieved the victory target of 195 runs comfortably with 47 balls to spare. 

Restricting West indies for 194, Indian bowlers Jhulan Goswami and Poonam Yadav picked up 2 wickets each while the likes of Shika Pandey, Rajeshwari Gayakwad and Deepti Sharma snared 1 each. 

From batting side, Jemimah Rodrigues hit 69 from 92 balls as India women stitched a 141-run opening stand. India lost Rodrigues and Mandhana in quick succession but Punam Raut and captain Mithali Raj chipped in with handy knocks to steer the team towards the victory. The injury had kept Mandhana out of action during the home series against South Africa and the first and second ODIs in West Indies but the elegant left-hander looked in complete control on Wednesday.With 9 boundaries and 3 sixes in match-winning knock, she helped put the pressure on West Indies bowlers. 

 

Smriti has thus become the fastest Indian woman cricketer to score 2000 ODI runs. Until now she has scored 2025 runs in 51 innings.