Opener Smriti Mandhana led the chase for India Women cricket team with a vigorous form where she followed up her hundred in the first ODI with a 90-run knock in the second to give India a formidable 2-0 lead over New Zealand.
Opting to field on the second one-dayer on Tuesday, India gave an excellent effort to bowl out New Zealand for a paltry 161 in 44.2 overs before the player of the match, Mandhana(90 not out) and skipper Mithali Raj(63 not out) stitched a 151-run unbroken third-wicket stand to breeze the team to an easy victory.
The duo resurrected the team from the early loss of opener Jemimah Rodrigues(0) and Deepti Sharma(8).
“It feels great but I feel our bowlers deserved the player of the match most. I will give it away to our bowlers as they did a great job to restrict New Zealand on a good wicket”, Smriti Mandhana said in the post-match presentation.
Mandhana just picked up from where she left off in the first ODI, where she had scored her fourth century in the format and Tuesday’s half-century was her eighth in the last 10 ODI innings.
