Team India began their Women's T20 World Cup with a win in the warm-up fixture against West Indies but not in the fashion they would have liked. Batting first continued to remain a challenge in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), even though it was just the academy ground in Dubai for the warm-up game as the Women in Blue were three down in the powerplay before Jemimah Rodrigues and Yastika Bhatia resurrected India's innings to take them to a total, which was eventually enough but the batters would have learned their lessons.
The 50-run stand between Jemimah and Bhatia even though it came at a run-a-ball rate was at the centre of India's fightback before the former went on to complete her half-century. There was another lower-order collapse that saw the Indian team go from 94/4 to 128/7, however a couple of boundaries each from Deepti Sharma and Pooja Vastrakar at the end helped the side cross the 140 mark.
India started outstandingly well with the ball dismissing three West Indies batters in the powerplay itself to reduce the 2016 champions to 3/13. The two innings resembled quite a lot as West Indies too built a rescue act partnership of 57 runs for the fourth wicket between Chinelle Henry and Shemaine Campbelle to stay on course of the run-chase.
However, the turning point came in the 13th over when Asha Sobhana broke the increasingly dangerous partnership by sending back Campbelle before Deepti Sharma got two more in a single over to peg the West Indies back.
Henry completed her fifty and stayed unbeaten but it was too much for her alone in the end to do as wickets just kept falling and India prevailed by 20 runs.
Captain Harmanpreet batted at No 3 with Rodrigues at No 4. Now, India have to decide whether to stay with this batting order for the World Cup or have one of Yastika/Dayalan Hemalatha or Sajana in the line-up. However, all three of them bat at different numbers and which position India needs to fill to bind themselves together is what they would look answers for in their second warm-up match against South Africa on Tuesday, October 1.
