Published: Sep 10, 2026, 6:12 PM (6 mins ago)
Shafali lives a charmed life
Marufa Akter was impressive once again with the new ball. Apart from her stock inswinger to the right-hand batter, she also showed off her legcutter, which beat Shafali's outside edge a couple of times.Opening the bowling from the other end, offspinner Sultana Khatun produced two chances in her very first over. Fahima Khatun dropped Shafali at long-on but Smriti Mandhana was not that fortunate. Shorna Akter caught her miscued aerial attempt at mid-on.Shafali got another reprieve in the third over when Nahida Akter failed to latch on to a low chance at mid-on off Marufa. The batter rubbed salt into Bangladesh's wounds by launching Sultana over long-off for back-to-back sixes in the following over. Despite Pratika Rawal struggling at the other end, Shafali's fireworks ensured India finished the powerplay on 45 for 1.Rawal and Harmanpreet's toil
Rawal had opened her account with a classical off-drive for four off the first ball. She also launched Rabeya Khan for a six in the last over of the powerplay. But she struggled to rotate strike and could manage only 20 off 24 balls in the end.Harmanpreet Kaur too found it difficult to get going. At one point, she was on 3 off 15 balls. As a result, India could score only 33 runs in seven overs after the powerplay.Shafali continues to ride her luck
Shafali reached her fifty off 35 balls and then enjoyed some more luck. On the very next ball, she had a miscommunication with Harmanpreet. It should have been an easy run-out at the bowler's end but Fahima fumbled the throw.Shafali then pulled Sultana over deep midwicket for a six. She tried to repeat the dose on the next ball but Shorna dropped the catch. The ball burst through her hands, hit her on the face and trickled to the deep-midwicket boundary. However, she holed out to long-on in the same over, with substitute Farjana Easmin taking the catch.Richa Ghosh (21 off 16) and Deepti Sharma (13 off six) injected some momentum towards the end while Harmanpreet finished on 24 not out off 28.Bangladesh's steady start
Ferdous and Dilara gave Bangladesh a steady start, with both batters hitting two boundaries each in the first three overs. But there were plenty of dot balls too, which meant the scoreboard read only 18 for no loss after three overs.After that, Harmanpreet introduced spin from both ends and the scoring rate dropped further. Bowling the last over of the powerplay, N Shree Charani delivered a wicket maiden, making Ferdous her 50th T20I wicket.Deepti does Deepti things
Deepti struck in her very first over. With the asking rate climbing fast, Ferdous tried to go aerial but holed out to deep midwicket. Nigar Sultana and Sobhana Mostary added 31 for the third wicket but consumed 34 balls for it.Deepti ended the stand by castling Mostary. That triggered a mini-collapse with Bangladesh losing three wickets in 15 balls for 17 runs. Prema Rawat had Nigar caught at short third before Deepti bowled Sharmin Akhter to make it 83 for 5 in the 16th over.India's fielding woes
The result was all but sealed by then. But India too were sub-par in the field, right from the start. In the very first over of the chase, Rawal had dropped an overhead catch to reprieve Dilara. Later on, she dropped Mostary at backward point. Mandhana misjudged a boundary catch as well, before Ghosh and Nandani Sharma collided while going for one near square leg. On another day, these mistakes could have proved costly.
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