IND-W vs ZIM-W

As expected, the Smriti Mandhana era has begun with a win in Raipur but you better not get fooled by the scorecard. India were pushed to the limits, they have a lot to ponder upon and improve as the skipper herself admitted in the post-match presentation which is why it will be very interesting to see how they come out in the second game of the series after a two-day gap. Zimbabwe can certainly hold their heads high and look to comeback even stronger the next time, they have certainly impressed one and all. A 1-0 lead for the hosts in this 3-match T20I series, time now for us to take your leave. This is Sourabh Agrawal signing off on behalf of Bidipto Datta and Datrim Ray. Cheers!

As expected Deepti Sharma is the Player of the Match for her 49-run knock, this is what she had to say: I am really pleased, I am used to such situations. Glad that I could get to bat in the poweplay. My mindset was to finish the match, me and Niki were batting in that way. (approach while batting?) I have played in between the practice sessions that we had, I knew that I had to play some shots early on if it was in my radar. The mindset is to play in my areas. (advantages of playing franchise cricket?) That has helped me, playing WPL and The Hundred and batting early in a chase and assessing the conditions. When you are mentally ready, when you are used to the conditions it is easy to adapt.

Smriti Mandhana (India Women captain): (assessment of the game) We would not have liked as a team for it to go down this way but nevertheless we won the match. Nandani bowled exceptionally well and Niki Prasad on her debut showing the composure. Then Deepti Sharma once again, she has been doing this for very long, a legend of the game. Apart from that, plenty of learnings to take back for us as a team. I have addressed pleny of things in the dressing room. The way we fielded today, the likes of Anushka and Niki were running around was good to see. (tackling an unknown opposition like Zimbabwe) The Zimbabwe batters batted really well, they played some good cricketing shots. We tried to use the slower deliveries. We have seen their vidoes, we did plan against them but watching live is very different

Josephine Nkomo (Zimbabwe captain): "I thought we played well, maybe around 20-30 runs short though. But we took wickets in the power play, we will take that any day. We kept everything simple, and took wickets. We did well in the field as well. We just need to work on our dot ball percentage. If we can get it going with a few more singles and twos, that will be good." 

India Women have now won 9 T20Is on the trot extending their biggest streak in this format. The previous best for the Women in Blue was 7 consecutive wins in 2018

Niki Prasad (39* off 35 balls on debut, coming in to bat at the Indian score being 19/4): "I think I was prepared well, so, I knew when I walked in, to take the team through. (On what Deepti Sharma told her when they got together at the crease) When I went out there to join her, the idea was to build a partnership and punish the bad balls. I just watched the ball and played to its merit. There was a lot of dew, so it skidded on, but we managed things well. She played brilliantly! She didn't allow the bowlers to get on top of her, and looking at that, I took confidence." 

10:05 PM local time and IST: MATCH SUMMARY

India Women (116/6 in 15.4 overs) beat Zimbabwe Women (114/5 in 20 overs) by 4 wickets

Deepti Sharma 49(38) | Nandani Sharma 2/11(4)
Sharne Mayers 43*(33) | Nyasha Gwanzura 3/18(3)

Oh the ebbs and flows of this beautiful game! You have got to hand it to the Zimbabwe team for making a serious fight of this but in the end it is the better team which comes out on the right side of the result.

Quite some start to the career of 20-year old Niki Prasad (39* off 35) who finishes with a picture-perfect off drive after displaying composure and calmness beyond her age combining with the ever-reliable Deepti Sharma when the two got together with India tottering at 19/4 in 2.2 overs chasing this modest total of 115

Nyasha Gwanzura ripped through the cream of the Indian batting as she got rid of Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma and Anushka Sharma including a wicket maiden and her combination with Mavunga gave the Indian Women a massive scare in this first game of the three-match T20I series. There were some careless shots from the Indian top order, something they will go back and reflect for sure as they had no business finding themselves in such a big hole

However, there was nothing loose about the way Deepti Sharma batted after joining Niki in the middle, she once again proved how invaluable she is to this Indian side specially when there is some trouble brewing. A record 82-run partnership for India for the 5th wicket between Deepti and Niki saved the blushes for India. Deepti missed out on a fifty, got dismissed on 49 but she had done her job by then and the rest was done by Niki who made sure India got past the finishing line

15.4 Tendai Makusha to Niki Prasad, FOUR RUNS! THAT ENDS THE MATCH! NIKI PRASAD STAYS NOT OUT, TO DO HER CONFIDENCE A WORLD OF GOOD! Quite full on off-and-middle. Driven off the front foot through the line, down to the right of mid-off, and away for a boundary.

15.1 Tendai Makusha to Arundhati Reddy, Oh! Good length and on off-and-middle. Arundhati inside-edges it past the stumps, for a single to fine-leg. 

A wicket for Biza who has delayed the inevitable for an over here. 4 more runs needed, this has got to be the final over of the contest. Makusha [1.0-0-14-0] bowled the first over of the innings, she returns for what should be the last too

14.6 Beloved Biza to Arundhati Reddy, quite full and straight. Arundhati connects with the sweep and gets it away to the left of deep square, for a single.

Richa was looking to finish it one blow but she perishes, 6 down now and Zimbabwe will be feeling a lot better about themselves then they were a few minutes ago.