Meghana, Shafali help India beat Malaysia in rain-affected match

Sabbhineni Meghana’s maiden T20I fifty, Shafali Verma’s 46 and Richa Ghosh’s blistering cameo of 33* propelled India to beat Malaysia by 30 runs by the Duckworth-Lewis (DLS) method in a rain-affected match in the Women’s T20 Asia Cup, at Sylhet Cricket Stadium on Monday.
With their second successive win in the tournament, India are leading the points table alongside Pakistan, who have also won as many matches as Women in Blue in the event so far.
Chasing a target of 182, Malaysia got off to a bad start as they lost their opener Winifred Duraisingam in the very first over of the match. Duraisingam went back to the pavilion after scoring zero runs as she was dismissed by Deepti Sharma.
Indian bowlers delivered economical spells and restricted Malaysian batters from scoring big runs. Rajeshwari Gayakwad then gave Malaysia another blow as she dismissed Wan Julia for 1 run.
Malaysia were 16 for 2, with Deepti Sharma and Gayakwad accounting for a wicket each when the match was called off due to persistent rains. India won the match by 30 runs by the DLS method. Earlier, fiery knocks from Sabbhineni Meghana and Shafali Verma followed by Richa Ghosh’s blistering cameo of 33* helped India post a challenging target of 181/4 against Malaysia.
For India, Meghana scored the highest 69 runs while Shafali Verma slammed 46 and Richa Ghosh played an unbeaten knock of 33 runs.
India made four changes to the playing XI, resting some major players like Smriti Mandhana, Sneh Rana, Pooja Vastrakar and Renuka Singh.
Put to bat first, India got off to a flying start as the openers Sabbhineni Meghana and Shafali Verma slammed Malaysian bowlers all-around the ground and gathered 36 runs in five overs without losing a wicket.
The duo continued carnage on Malaysian bowlers and hammered Ainna Hamizah Hashim for 11 runs in the last over of the powerplay. Meghana, brought in for the rested Smriti Mandhana, slammed a stunning four and brought up her half-century in 37 balls.