Indian women’s team registered an emphatic eight-wicket victory in the second ODI against New Zealand at Bay Oval, Mount Maunganui on Tuesday (January 29). With this win, the Women in Blue also secured an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.

Indian bowlers set up the win by wrapping up the White Ferns to a paltry 161. While the veteran Jhulan Goswami was the stand-out bowler with three wickets to her name, Ekta Bist, Deepti Sharma and Poonam Yadav chipped in with two scalps.

In reply, India suffered a couple of early blows as Jemimah Rodriguez was dismissed by Anna Peterson for a duck while Deepti Sharma was removed by Lea Tahuhu for just 8.

Subsequently, in-form opener Smriti Mandhana got things back in control by hitting a flurry of boundaries. Mandhana’s attacking approach allowed skipper Mithali Raj to take time and get settled. While Smriti played a magnificent knock of 90 not out in 83 balls (13 fours and 1 six), Raj scored 63* off 111 deliveries at a strike-rate of 56.76 as India reached the target with 88 balls to spare.

Despite India’s victory, fans on social media trolled Mithali for her circumspect approach throughout the innings. Since Raj finished the match with a straight six, Twitterati couldn’t resistant drawing parallels between her and the veteran India wicketkeeper MS Dhoni.

Dhoni is often been trolled for his cautious approach. During the recently held ODI series against Australia, the 37-year-old faced the wrath of the fans for his turtle-paced knock (51 runs off 96 balls) in the first match at SCG.