Twitter Reactions: Sophie Devine, Rosemary Mair inspire New Zealand Women to 58-run win against India Women

New Zealand Women skipper Sophie Devine won the toss and opted to bat first in Match 6, on a track she believed wouldn't change too much. Both the teams went pace-heavy for the game. Radha Yadav, India's second leading wicket-taker in T20Is in 2024, was dropped to accommodate an extra seamer.

The Kiwis were off and running right from the get-go, as Georgia Plimmer boosted her way by plundering Deepti Sharma for a four and a six off the first and last deliveries of her very first over. Arundhati Reddy provided the first breakthrough as Suzie Bates was heaved towards the deep-midwicket fence after the first three deliveries of the over were stroked for three back-to-back doubles. Asha Sobhana pulled out the binoculars celebrating Leandro Trossard of Arsenal on claiming Plimmer in the very next over.

However, from there onwards, it was all Sophie Devine from that point. Coming into bat in the ninth over, she was assertive whenever the opportunity for run-scoring and big-hitting was presented to her. Amelia Kerr was dismissed in the 15th, but not before the controversy erupted with the two seemingly wanting to steal a second run but Kerr was recalled to the middle as the fourth umpire adjudged the over to be called before the pair set off for the second, only for Kerr to run out by the skipper of India Women, Harmanpreet Kaur.

Deepti conceded as many in her final over as her first courtesy of some splendid piece of batting by Devine, as she brought up a well-deserved half-century to set the Indians a target of 161. Coming to the run-chase, the first delivery of the Indian innings was away for a boundary as well. Shafali Verma, the big fish, spooned a simple return catch to Eden Carsen to get things going for the Kiwis.

Smriti Mandhana was the second batter to be dismissed by Carsen as New Zealand further enhanced their grip on the game by getting the better of Kaur within the powerplay. Lee Tahuhu struck twice across her first couple to have India Women five down at the end of the 11th over. Batting was so much of a struggle for the Indians that they did not score their next boundary post the powerplay until the final delivery of the 14th over.

Also Check: Here's why Harmanpreet Kaur was furious with umpire over Amelia Kerr run-out controversy

It was all but done for India Women as the gulf between the number of runs and the number of deliveries left kept on expanding. The final nail in the coffin was courtesy of Rosemary Mair, who wrapped up the innings by dismissing Shreyanka Patil and Renuka Singh off successive deliveries. She ended up with magnificent figures of 4/19 in her allotted quota, leading New Zealand Women to a famed win.

It seemed like a similar tale as to what had gone down in the men's India-New Zealand game at the 2016 edition of the T20 World Cup, with the Kiwis completely stifling India to produce a famous victory. Coincidentally, both the games were India's first of the respective tournaments.

Here's how X reacted to Match 3 of the Women's T20 World Cup 2024: