India completed their second consecutive win of the ongoing ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2023, after defeating West Indies by six wickets in Cape Town on Wednesday (February 15).
West Indies captain Hayley Matthews won the toss and opted to bat first, as India brought in Smriti Mandhana and Devika Vaidya for Yastika Bhatia and Harleen Deol.
The decision immediately backfired as the skipper was dismissed for 2. Stefanie Taylor (42) and Shemaine Campbelle (30) added 73 runs for the second wicket, but took 80 deliveries in the process, which put a lot of pressure on the remaining batters to accelerate the scoring.
India picked up 5/41 in the last 40 balls, to restrict West Indies to just 118/6. Deepti Sharma finished with figures of 3/15, and became the first Indian (irrespective of gender) to achieve the milestone of 100 T20I wickets.
India's chase got off to a bumpy start as they were reeling at 43/3 in 7.1 overs, before captain Harmanpreet Kaur (33) and wicketkeeper-batter Richa Ghosh (44*) put on a 72-run partnership to all but seal the deal. India eventually won by 6 wickets with 11 balls to spare, and Deepti Sharma was named the Player-of-the-Match.
Depending on other results in the group, India may now need to win only one of their remaining two group matches against England and Ireland, to make it to the semi-finals.
Cricket fraternity applauded Deepti Sharma for the 100-wicket milestone and her match-winning spell.
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