India A vs Bangladesh A - 2nd T20, Belgaum, Karnataka

After a day break, the confident Indians were eager to win the series as they already had a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.Luck favored India, as they won the toss and elected to bat first. Taniya Bhatia and Jemimah Rodrigues opened the innings for the India. Openers grabbed the opportunity with both hands as they went for a century partnership with a healthy strike rate. Bangladesh A bowlers struggled against both the batters until they got their first break through in the form of Taniya Bhatia who got out of Shaila Samrin’s bowling.

 

Half of the work was done by the openers and now it was the time for the middle order to set up a good total on the board.Rodrigues and skipper Anuja Patil were going well but in the 14th over Salma Khatun knocked out the opener. She departed after scoring 63 off 42 deliveries. In the quest of scoring big the middle order collapsed with only Anuja keeping one end tight.India A scored 152 for 5 at the end of 20 overs.Jemimah 63(42), Taniya 35(39) and Anuja 28*(22) were the top scorers for India A. Jahandra Alam took 2 wickets for 31 runs in her 4 overs, while Sharmin and Khatun bagged a wicket each.

 

It was a daunting task for the Bangladesh A batters to chase down a big total. Sarmin Sultana and Murshida opened the innings but Sultana didn’t stay long. Murshida and Fargana were playing some good cricket until India got the much-needed breakthrough, when Murshida got caught on Rath’ s bowling. Bangladesh team was under immense pressure. Rumana and Fargana let some hope for Bangladesh, but India’s brilliancy in the field let down Fargana as she got run out. Two wickets in a short span led India to bounce back confidently. Their confidence was seen in their bowling as they knocked off the middle order and tail enders within a short time, as none of them was able to make a double digit score. Pressure of chasing down led Bangladesh A to score 112/8 at the end of the innings as India won the match by 40 runs.

 

Murshida 31(35) and Fargana 34(34) played well from one end but couldn’t help their team to chase down the total. Anuja Patil was the pick of the bowlers for taking 2 wickets for 19. Radha Yadav, Soni Yadav and Swagathika Rath each bagged a wicket. Indian’s extraordinary performances led them to steal the series 2-0 with one match remaining.

 

India A 152/5 (Rodrigues 63,Alam 2/31)

Bangladesh A 112/8 (Hoque 34, Anuja 2/19)

India won by 40runs.

India won the series 2-0.