Vadodara: The Indian women’s cricket team put on a dominating show in the first ODI of the three-match series against West Indies and secured a 211-run triumph. The Caribbean side looked far away from the target right from the start as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals. The visitors were bundled on 103 and India took a 1-0 lead in the series with a 211-run victory.
Captain Harmanpreet Kaur etched her name in the record books becoming the second India women as captain after Mithali Raj to score 1000 ODI runs. Also, she joined the elite list of MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar to become the 10th Indian batter as captain to score 1000 ODI runs.
Batting first, India posted a mammoth total of 314/9 with the likes of Smriti Mandhana scoring 91 runs while Harleen Deol played a knock of 44 runs. Mandhana's blistering knock helped the Indian team to cross the 300-run mark. Zaida James was the pick of the bowlers for the Caribbean side taking five wickets while Hayley Matthews chipped in with a couple of wickets.
Renuka Singh Thakur was the wrecker-in-chief as she claimed her maiden five-wicket haul to finish with figures of 5/29 in the second innings when West Indies walked in the middle for the 315-run chase. They kept waddling and were eventually bundled out for just 103. The ball was doing much under the lights. The Indian pace duo of Renuka Singh and Titas Sadhu ripped apart West Indies' top order and they were unable to recover from the early blows after that. All of their top 4 departed for single figures with the openers Healy Matthews and Qiana Joseph both getting ducks, while Afy Fletcher and Shermaine Campbell were the only batters to cross the 20-run mark.
Apart from Renuka, Priya Mishra chipped in with two wickets while Deepti Sharma and Titas Sidhu picked a wicket apiece.
Most Runs As India Captain (Men & Women)
MS Dhoni – 6641 runs (200 matches)
Virat Kohli – 5449 runs (95 matches)
Mithali Raj – 5319 runs (155 matches)