Smriti Mandhana Joined Mithali Raj And Harman Preet Kaur As India’s joint-highest half-century scorer in Women’s T20 World Cup history, with her fifth half-century of the tournament, helped India post 170 for 6 against Pakistan in their opening match at Edgbaston on Sunday.Mandhana scored 68 off 44 balls and shared a 91-run partnership with skipper Harmanpreet Kaur (36 off 35 balls) as India were reduced to 18 for 2 at the start of the innings. Richa Ghosh then added 34 runs off 17 balls to give India a strong finish.With her innings, Mandhana tied with Mithali and Harmanpreet for five scores of 50 or more in the Women’s T20 World Cup.Highest 50+ score for India in Women’s T20 World Cup
- 5 – Mithali Raj (23 innings)
- 5 – Harmanpreet Kaur (34 innings)
- 5 – Smriti Mandhana (26 innings)
- 3 – Panam Rawat (15 innings)
India got off to a poor start, slipping to 18 for 2 after losing Shafali Verma for 6 and Jemima Rodriguez for 1. Mandhana and Harmanpreet then rebuilt the innings carefully before increasing the scoring rate.India were 30 for 2 at the end of the powerplay, but the pair quickly added runs in the next seven overs. Mandhana completed his half-century in 34 balls and hit nine fours and two sixes during his innings.She escaped two chances during her innings. First, a catch was dropped at mid-off off the bowling of Tasmia Rabab. Later, the opportunity to hit Sadia Iqbal for a six over the wide long-on boundary was missed by the fielder.Mandhana’s innings ended when he mistimed a shot off Ramin Shamim and Pakistan captain Fatima Sana completed the catch.After his dismissal, India lost momentum for a while. India were stumped for 0, while Harman Preet fell for 36 when Natalia Pervez caught Fatima Sana on the square-leg boundary.Richa Ghosh again pushed late. The wicketkeeper-batsman scored 34 runs off 17 balls, India scored 23 runs from Rabab’s last over.On behalf of Pakistan, Sadia Iqbal took 2 for 41 runs while captain Fatima Sana dismissed 2 players for 33 runs.India eventually reached 170 for 6, with Mandhana’s record half-century laying the foundation for the total.India won this match by 64 runs after Pakistan team was bowled out for 106 runs in 17 overs.
