Women’s Asia Cup: India give UAE lesson in batting

Sylhet, October 4

Jemimah Rodrigues was at her ruthless best, smashing an unbeaten 75 off 45 balls, as India outclassed an inexperienced United Arab Emirates by 104 runs in the Women’s Asia Cup here today.

Rodrigues and Deepti Sharma (64 off 49 balls) added 128 runs in 13.3 overs after UAE had rattled the Indians early on, reducing the tournament favourites to 20/3 by the fifth over. However, the gulf in class between the two teams became apparent as India posted a challenging 178/5 in 20 overs. The UAE team, which is represented by 11 players of Indian origin, was never quite in the chase, finishing at 74/4 in 20 overs.

India have now won three matches on the trot and are firmly on their way to grabbing a semifinals berth, although the big games against Bangladesh and Pakistan are yet to be played.

While Smriti Mandhana, Sabbhineni Meghana and an out-of-form Shafali Verma were back in the dug-out quickly, Rodrigues and Sharma first steadied the ship till the 12th over and then upped the ante towards the end.

While chasing, the mindset of the UAE batters was ultra-defensive and they were keen on not losing wickets after being reduced to 5/3 by the end of the second over.

Brief scores: India: 178/5 (Rodrigues 75*, Sharma 64; Gaur 1-27); UAE: 74/4 (Egodage 30*; Gayakwad 2/20).