Dual victories for India’s women’s and men’s cricket teams

Smriti Mandhana

By Kersi Meher-Homji

Queenstown in New Zealand and Lucknow are thousands of kilometers apart but both were scenes of celebration for Indian cricket teams.

At Queenstown the Indian women’s team defeated the New Zealand women’s team by 6 wickets in the 5th One Day International (ODI).

With Amelia Kerr top scoring with 66 runs, the home team scored 9 for 251 in 50 overs. The successful bowlers for India were Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Deepti Sharma and Sneh Ratna who captured two wickets each.

India reached the winning target losing only four wickets Smriti Mandhana hit a quick 71, Harmanpreet Kaur 63 and Mithali Raj 54 not out. Mandhana was adjudged Player of the Match.

This was India’s only win in a 5-match series which New Zealand won 4-1. NZ all-rounder Amelia Kerr was the Player of the Series.

The Women’s ODI World Cup starts in New Zealand on 4th March with the Final on 3rd April. For their first match the Indian girls will meet Pakistan on 6th March.

Big hitting by Ishan and Shreyas behind India’s big win over Sri Lanka

Now for the big triumph by India’s men in a Twenty20 International (T20I) at Lucknow. India started fluently as Ishan Kishan (89) and Rohit Sharma (44) put on 111 for the first wicket. Then Shreyas Iyer hit out to score an aggressive and unbeaten 57 and India totaled 2 for 199 in 20 overs.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar took a wicket off the first ball of Sri Lanka’s innings. Wickets kept toppling and Sri Lanka could make only 6 for 137 in 20 overs to lose by 62 runs. The only Sri Lankan batsman to do well was Charith Asalanka who scored an unbeaten 53.

Ishan Kishan was made Player of the Match for scoring 89 runs and performing well as a wicket-keeper by taking a catch and stumping one.

India leads the three match series 1-0.

The second T20I starts tonight at Dharamsala.

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