West Indies captain Hayley Matthews (L) smashed 85 off 47 balls to power the team to a big win over India in the second T20I on Tuesday. (Express Photo by Narendra Vaskar)
When Hayley Matthews hit a delicious punch off the backfoot through the offside in the 16th over of West Indies’ run-chase, it was her 17th boundary of the night and a fitting way to take her side past the finish line. A fabulous display of stroke-making from the Windies captain – 85 off 47 balls with 80 percent of her runs coming through 4s – powered the visitors to a big win in the second T20I against India at the DY Patil Stadium on Tuesday. Chasing 160 to win, Matthews led from the front as West Indies finished with 9 wickets in hand and 26 balls to spare.
“She wants to be the girl under pressure all the time. That’s when she’s at her best I think,” West Indies’ new coach Shane Deitz had said during the T20 World Cup where she led the team to the semifinals.
And she took up the responsibility of bringing her team back to the series in some style.
Standing in for Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana lost the toss and West Indies made the most of some moisture on the pitch early on to restrict India’s batting charge. The move to have Deandra Dottin bowling in the powerplay proved to be a masterstroke as she bowled 2 overs in the first six, conceded just 7 runs and picked up the wicket of Uma Chetry in her first over. India could manage just 35/2 in the powerplay and had lost the wicket of in-form Jemimah Rodrigues too. India scored 100 runs in the last 10 overs and that was just a sign of what was to come in the second half.
Big-hitting Qiana Joseph and Matthews broke the run-chase in the powerplay, smashing 62 runs from overs 2 to 6, with 11 fours and two sixes between them. India’s bowlers were wayward in the powerplay. Titas Sadhu struggled with her radar, conceding 18 runs in the 2nd over. Renuka Singh Thakur and Deepti Sharma’s two overs went for 18 and 21 runs as the left-handed Joseph was especially aggressive in clearing her front foot and peppering the boundary lines.
Even when Joseph fell, Matthews didn’t take the foot off the pedal, showing why she is one of the best in the world square of the wicket: 11 of her 17 fours came between point and cover on the offside (5), and square leg and midwicket on the leg side (6). It also signified India’s troubles in holding a steady line and length, as they leaked boundaries on both sides of the pitch.
Mandhana steps up
With the bat, it was once again Mandhana stepping up as she scored back-to-back half-centuries in this series. She had some luck on the night with Windies dropping some catches but her 62 off 41 balls became a platform for Richa Ghosh to come in the backend and help her side to reach 159/9 with some crisp hitting later on. But Dottin’s brilliant day on the field got better in the 19th over when she bowled a fine yorker to have Richa caught behind. The star allrounder who came back from retirement before this year’s World Cup, had earlier pulled off a stunning save at long on to prevent a six and later took a breathtaking diving catch while running in from long on. She bowled 14 dot balls in her spell of 2/14 and India just couldn’t put her under any pressure.
“The conditions changed massively after the 7th-8th over of the first innings and then I think they batted brilliantly well,” Mandhana said after the match. “There was a little bit of moisture on the wicket early on, and the kind of batting we could do in the first half of the previous game, the same shots were not coming off today. Our execution of the plans with the ball could have been better. Dew wasn’t there as much in the first 10 overs of their fielding and all of a sudden there was a lot. But we can’t complain about that, we know it will be a factor, we just have to put our hands up and know where to bowl in such conditions.”
Brief score: India 159/9 (Mandhana 62, Ghosh 32, Dottin 2/14) lost to WI 160/1 (Matthews 85*, Joseph 38, Thakor 1/28)
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