All-round Jemimah Rodrigues guides India to thumping win

Jemimah Rodrigues' career-best 86 off 78 and four wickets for just three runs powered India to a dominant 108-run victory against Bangladesh in the second ODI at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium in Mirpur on Wednesday (July 19). Bangladesh lost their last seven wickets for just 14 runs as India levelled the three-match ODI series. Harmanpreet Kaur scored 52 and Devika Vaidya grabbed a three-fer in a one-sided affair.

Eyeing a historic series win, Nigar Sultana asked India to bat first. Shorna Akter, who was down with stomach pain in the first ODI, was replaced by Lata Mondal in the Bangladesh side. India brought in Meghna Singh and Harleen Deol for Pooja Vastrakar and Anusha Bareddy. 

Marufa Akter picked up right from where she left in the 1st ODI and kicked off the innings with a maiden. In the fifth over, Marufa followed it up with a brilliant inswinging delivery to clatter Priya Punia’s stumps. 

Unfazed by the first wicket, Yastika Bhatia and Smriti Mandhana kept the scoreboard ticking with regular boundaries off Marufa and Sultana Khatun. However, the partnership broke right after the power play when Mandhana's straight drive hit Marufa’s arm and knocked off the wickets at the non-striker’s end. An unfortunate Bhatia fell short of her crease.

The spin trio of Fahima Khatun, Nahida Akter and Rabeya Khan made Indian captain Harmanpreet and her deputy struggle for runs. With no boundary in 63 balls, Mandhana looked to release the pressure by taking on Rabeya. Mandhana danced down the track but Rabeya’s leg break deceived her and shattered the stumps.

Joined by Rodrigues in the middle, Harmanpreet kept rotating the strike with ones and twos but runs were still hard to come by. Harmanpreet's first boundary of the innings in came in the 45th ball when she swept Rabeya towards the deep square-leg.

The duo upped the ante after Marufa came back into the attack, hitting one boundary apiece in the 33rd over. But, before the Indian innings could take off, Harmanpreet faced issues in her left hand from the ball that hit her at the non-striking end while running between the wickets. The Indian skipper decided to retire hurt.

Rodrigues and Harleen Deol kept the innings going at a moderate pace by converting singles into doubles before Rodrigues decided to accelerate. Rodrigues kept finding the boundary on that slower surface and brought up her half-century with a glorious cover drive. However, spin did the work again for Bangladesh as Deol edged Nahida behind the wicket. Harmanpreet walked in again and soon completed her 18th fifty in the format although she wasn't her usual self.

Rodrigues showed no signs of slowing down and continued her rampage, adding three more boundaries before getting stumped off Nahida in the penultimate over to end her brilliant knock at 86 off 78 balls.

In an eventful final over of the Indian innings, Sultana Khatun dismissed Harmanpreet courtesy of Rabeya's stunning catch at deep mid-wicket. Deepti Sharma caught at short third for a duck, and Sneh Rana was run out while attempting to take three runs off the final delivery. However, India scored 67 runs off the last ten overs. 

Defending 229, Mandhana was standing in as the captain with Harmanpreet unable to come out to field due to her injury. The home side needed to best their successful chase in their ODI history to chase that total down.

Murshida Khatun started off in an outstanding fashion, sending Meghna Singh for a couple of boundaries in the very first over. Mandhana opted for spin at the beginning itself and it paid off. Deepti Sharma dismissed Sharmin Akter after the batter failed to execute a sweep and succumbed to lbw. Meghna got her revenge in the next over after Murshida edged the ball, leading to a dolly for Mandhana at mid-off. Soon, Rana sent Lata Mondal back for cheap to leave Bangladesh tottering. 

Bangladesh were toiling hard for runs as Fargana Hoque and Ritu Moni anchored the innings. The duo built a 68-run stand before Mandhana's bowling change worked and Vaidya struck with the wicket of Hoque, who scored a well-made 47 off 81 deliveries. Moni followed suit, looking to go for the big hit, but missed Rodrigues’ delivery and Bhatia made no mistake in her second stumping of the game. 

The Bangladesh line-up completely collapsed after the two set batters departed. Vaidya and Rodrigues chimed in with the rest of the wickets, with all the other batters failing to reach double digits. Vaidya got rid of Rabeya in the following over. Two overs later, Rodrigues struck twice, which included the wicket of captain Nigar.

Rodrigues brought down the curtains on the Bangladesh innings as Marufa was caught by Mandhana. Rodrigues, who had taken just a single wicket in her ODI career before this game, ended the innings with an outstanding figure of four wickets for three runs after bowling only 3.1 overs.

Brief Scores: India 228/8 in 50 overs (Jemimah Rodrigues 86, Harmanpreet Kaur 52; Nahida Akter 2/37, Sultana Khatun 2/41) beat Bangladesh 120/10 in 35.1 overs (Fargana Hoque 47, Ritu Moni 27; Jemimah Rodrigues 4/3, Devika Vaidya 3/30) by 108 runs POTM: Jemimah Rodrigues