Openers Shafali Verma, Smriti Mandhana and bowlers were at the forefront of India women's 84-run resounding victory over West Indies in the first T20I of the ongoing five-match series in St Lucia this Saturday (November 10).
Batting first, India had Mandhana (67) and Shafali (73) dominating the bowling through a record 143-run opening stand that helped the team post a mammoth 185/4 on the board. Shafali became the youngest Indian cricketer to score an international half-century.
Shakera Selman (2/36) got a couple of breakthroughs in her spell but the rest of the hosts' bowling unit was just hammered across the ground.
Similar theme continued in the run-chase when Shikha Pandey (2/22), Radha Yadav (2/10) and Poonam Yadav (2/24) got two wickets apiece to simply break the back of West Indies women's batting unit restricting it to just 101/9.
Only Shemaine Campbelle (33) went past the 20-run mark while the rest simply found the bowling too hard to tackle.
It was another great day on this tour for the visitors, who had earlier clinched the three-match ODI series 2-1.
The second T20I will be played on Sunday (November 10).
Brief scores:
India 185/4 in 20 overs (Shafali Verma 73; Shakera Selman 2/36) defeated West Indies 101/9 in 20 overs (Shemaine Campbelle; Radha Yadav 2/10) by 84 runs.