Harmanpreet Kaur, bowlers help India to convincing win

Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and her unbeaten fifty helped India beat Bangladesh to register a clinical win in the first T20I at the Sher-E-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur on Sunday (July 9). This was India's first game since their semi-final defeat at the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2023 in South Africa in February.

Opting to bowl first, India gave debut caps to two players in allrounder Minnu Mani and left-arm spinner Anusha Bareddy.

Although she started with conceding a six and a four, Minnu came back to pick up her first international wicket when she dismissed Shamima Sultana for 17. From there, Shathi Rani and Sobhana Mostary added 25 runs for the second wicket to take the score past 50. 

However, once Pooja Vastrakar removed Rani, Bangladesh struggled to get the scorecard moving and the run outs of skipper Nigar Sultana Joty and Ritu Moni didn't help things either.

From there, it was young Shorna Akter who took on the mantle to get Bangladesh to a decent score as she hit a couple of sixes with Anusha and Shafali Verma getting tonked over deep mid-wicket and long-on respectively.

With the help of Shorna's unbeaten 28 off 28 balls, Bangladesh reached a score of 114 for 5 from their stipulated 20 overs.

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For India, Vastrakar was the most successful bowler as she conceded only 16 runs to pick up a wicket from her four overs. Deepti Sharma was frugal as well as she gave away only 14 runs in her spell.

In the chase, India lost Shafali early with Marufa Akter trapping her in front of the wicket for a three-ball duck. When Jemimah Rodrigues also fell, India were 21 for 2 at the end of the fourth over.

Joinging her deputy Smrit Mandhana, Harmanpreet saw the southpaw hit back-to-back boundaries against Marufa in the fifth over. The duo ended the power play with two more boundaries as Harmanpreet got going with her first four between cover and point.

Although she slowed down a bit and was batting on 16 off 15 at the drinks break with India's score reading 61 fior 2, Harmanpreet upped the ante with a couple of boundaries off Nahida Akter including a trademark sweep.

Harmanpreet then launched Rabeya Khan over long-on for a huge six before sweeping her to deep square-leg for another boundary. Despite Mandhana's fall in the next over, the right-hander didn't stop and brought up her fifty in style with another maximum before hitting runs with a boundary off the next ball.

The Indian captain finished on 54 not out off 35 balls as India romped home with 22 balls to spare.

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Brief Scores: Bangladesh 114/5 in 20 overs (Shorna Akter 28*; Pooja Vastrakar 1/18) lost to India 118/3 in 16.2 overs (Harmanpreet Kaur 54*, Smriti Mandhana 38; Sultana Khatun 2/25) by 7 wickets POTM: Harmanpreet Kaur