India Women are through. Beat Bangladesh by 40 runs in the semi, and honestly it wasn’t as close as that scoreline might suggest once Shafali Verma got going early on.
Won the toss, batted first, and Shafali just took the game away from Bangladesh inside the first few overs. 64 off 40 balls, strike rate past 160 — that’s not just a good innings, that’s the kind of start that decides a game before it’s even half done. Bangladesh’s bowlers never really recovered from it.
She had help too, to be fair. Harmanpreet Kaur did the steadying job — 24 off 28, nothing flashy, just kept things moving when India could’ve lost their way a bit in the middle. Richa Ghosh came in late and smashed a quick 21 off 16 to get India up to 149 for 6 after twenty. Explosive start, calm middle, quick finish. Hard to ask for more than that from a batting innings.
Bangladesh weren’t completely toothless with the ball, either. Sultana Khatun mixed her pace up well and finished with 2 for 30 off her four. Rabeya Khatun and Nahida Akter grabbed a wicket each. Just wasn’t enough in the end.
Then came the chase, and it never really got off the ground. 150 needed, and Bangladesh just couldn’t build anything. Shorna Akter scrapped for 22 off 18, Dilara Akter’s 21 off 26 gave a bit of stability, captain Nigar Sultana added 19 off 17 — decent individual efforts, but the required rate kept climbing every time a wicket fell, which was often.
India’s spinners deserve most of the credit for that. Deepti Sharma was outstanding — 3 for 26, flight and turn, the works, properly tying Bangladesh’s batters up in knots. Nandani Sharma was just as tight in support, 2 for 10, and Shree Charani chipped in with one for 14. Between them, no partnership ever got room to breathe, and that pressure is really what strangled the chase more than any single big moment. Bangladesh ended up at 109 for 7. Forty short. Tournament over.
Player of the match went to Shafali, no surprise there. 64 runs plus four tidy overs for 25 with the ball — that kind of two-way contribution is exactly why people keep talking about her as one of the most exciting young players India Women have right now.
Where does this leave things? India go into the final full of confidence, with a batting lineup that can take a game away early and a spin attack disciplined enough to defend almost anything. That’s a genuinely tough combination for any opponent.
Bangladesh will take some things from this too, even in defeat — Shorna Akter, Dilara Akter and their captain all showed fight. But if there’s a lesson from this game, it’s that they need a proper plan against high-quality spin, because sides like India are going to keep testing them with exactly that.
Leave a Reply