Visitors seal title 3-0 with two match to go

Visiting India Womens cricket team beat their Bangladesh counterparts by seven wickets in the 3rd of the five-match WT20i series at Sylhet International Cricket Stadium on Thursday, securing the title 3-0 with two matches in hand.

India won the toss and elected to field first. The hosts got off to a strong start with their openers Dilara Akter and Murshida Khatun, putting on 46 runs together in 6.3 overs before Murshida was dismissed for nine. Skipper Nigar Sultana Joty then partnered with Dilara and started guiding the hosts until Dilara was out for 39 off 27 balls including five boundaries. Joty contributed 28 runs.

However, none of the later batters could resist the Indian bowling attack, with Sobhana Mostary scoring 15, Fahima Khatun out for a duck, Ritu Moni making eight, Shorifa Khatun dismissed for zero, Nahida Akter scoring two and Rabeya Khan remaining unbeaten on seven. Bangladesh thereby, posted 117 runs for eight wickets.
Radha Yadav took two wickets for India, while Pooja Vastrakar, Shreyanka Patil and Renuka Singh took one wicket each.

In response, India reached the target convincingly losing three wickets. Opener Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana stood out with the bat, with Mandhana scoring 47 off 42 balls with five boundaries and a six, while Verma was even more aggressively scored a fifty with 51 runs off 27 balls, including eight boundaries. Dayalan Hemalatha contributed nine runs, while skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and wicketkeeper Richa Ghosh remained unbeaten on six and eight runs respectively as India reached 121 runs from 18.3 overs with seven wickets in hand.

Ritu Moni, Nahida Akter and Rabeya Khan took a wicket each for Bangladesh.

Shafali Verma of India was named the Player of the Match.

The fourth match of the series is scheduled to take place on May 6 at the same venue.