Women's Asia Cup 2022: Jemimah and Deepti produce heroics as India crushes UAE by 104 runs
India hammered UAE by 104 runs in the former's third 2022 Women's Asia Cup game. With this win, the Women in Blue have climbed atop the points table, inching closer to the semis berth.
FollowJemimah Rodrigues was at her unfeeling best, plundering an unbeaten 75 off 45 deliveries. India outclassed an inexperienced United Arab Emirates (UAE) by 104 runs in the Women's T20 Asia Cup 2022 at the Sylhet Outer Cricket Stadium on Tuesday. Jemimah and Deepti Sharma (64 off 49) contributed 128 runs in 13.3 overs after UAE briefly sent some shudders down the Indians' backbone, reducing the tournament choices to 20/3 within the fifth over. However, the difference in class between the two sides became more noticeable, with India posting a problematic 178/5 in 20 overs. The UAE side, which retains 11 players of Indian origin, did not bother being competitive in its chase, finishing the 20 overs at 74/4.
India has now won its three opening games and is firmly on course to hold a semi-final berth, although the big contests against Bangladesh and Pakistan are yet to happen. While Smriti Mandhana, S Meghana and an out-of-form Shafali Verma were back in the dug-out fast, Jemimah and Deepti steadied the ship till the 12th. They upped the ante towards the closure of the innings when the UAE bowlers struggled to control the run flow.
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While Jemimah hit 11 fours, Deepti had five fours and a couple of sixes, including a slog-swept behind '45' off a medium pacer. Jemimah had a couple of prevalent scoring zones -- one in the angle between square leg and deep mid-wicket and the other between the cover and extra cover.
The UAE skipper used eight bowlers, but the final six overs were complete havoc, with 72 runs being leaked. While chasing, the mood of the UAE batters was ultra-defensive, and they were keener on not losing wickets after being reduced to 5/3 by the second over.
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Kavisha Egodage (unbeaten 30 off 54) and Khushi Sharma (29 off 50) were engaged in a 59-run stand, where all they did was bypass getting dismissed. Undoubtedly, India's stand-in captain Smriti Mandhana was pleasured as a force following the victory. "Jemi and Deepti batted brilliantly for their 100-run partnership to get us back in the game," Mandhana said after the success.
"They [UAE] batted well, there was one dropped catch, but they batted well not to give their wickets away. We had plans for our bowlers to get some practice and are happy with what we managed. We wanted all our batters to have a hit," concluded Mandhana.
(With inputs from PTI)
