India vs Bangladesh women: Shamima Sultana helps hosts clinch consolation win in third T20I, India clinch series 2-1

Mirpur: Indian batters’ struggles against spin bowling continued as Bangladesh held their nerve to pull off a four-wicket consolation win in the third and final women’s T20 International here on Thursday. India produced another underwhelming batting performance to end up with 102 for nine after opting to bat. It seemed Bangladesh, who could not chase 96 in the previous game, had taken the self destructing route again but managed to cross the line in 18.1 overs. Opener Shamima Sultana (42 off 46) held the innings together for Bangladesh. India sealed the series 2-1 but their performance left a lot to be desired. The three- match ODI series between the two teams will begin here on July 16. Batting on spin friendly wickets was the biggest let down as the batters lacked the firepower to put pressure on the slow bowlers. Barring skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, none of the batters could clear the fence in the three games. The performance of rookie off-spinner Minnu Mani was among the few positive stories to have come out for India. When the new head coach takes charge of the team, he will have plenty of work to do before the side returns to play the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh next year. Harmanpreet acknowledged after the game there is scope for a lot of improvement in the following ODI series. “It will be a low-scoring tournament. We won’t get to see 300 scored in an inning. Need to rotate strike and go over by over. Lots of areas to improve as a team and let’s see how it goes,” she said at the post-match presentation. On the loss to Bangladesh, Harmanpreet added: “Bangladesh looked very aware today, the way they were batting. Lots of learning for us, the way they took the singles. They did not give us a chance. “This wicket you need to depend on singles and doubles. Due to our batting collapse, we did not get even 6 runs per over. The gamechanger for us was the last five overs where we did not get what we wanted as we felt the pressure.” The India skipper struck a solid 40 off 41 balls before a batting collapse in the death overs saw India lose their last six wickets for 11 runs. Leggie Rabeya Khan was the standout bowler for Bangladesh with three wickets for 16 runs in four overs. Off-spinner Sultana Khatun was impressive in the powerplay, removing the star opening duo of Shafali Verma (11) and Smriti Mandhana (1). The surface has proved to be “tricky” throughout the low-scoring series and considering that, Harmanpreet opted to bat first. Shafali and Mandhana once again failed to provide a good start to leave India at 27 for two in six overs. Mandhana got herself into an awkward position while trying to work one towards the leg side and ended up getting a leading edge with Bangladesh captain and keeper Nigar Sultana doing the rest. Shafali was caught at long on, failing to clear the fence. Jemimah Rodrigues (28 off 26) and Harmanpreet stitched a 45-run stand to take the innings forward before the former was stumped off leg-spinner Shorna Akter. Unlike the previous game, Jemimah showed positive intent in her innings and made good use of her feet against the spinners. The lack of six-hitters in the squad was exposed again as Harmanpreet was the only one to have cleared the ropes. Once Harmanpreet was stumped in the 17th over, wickets fell in a heap as Indian batters failed to get the required boundaries.