When medium-pacer Renuka Singh is in the form that she was in against Barbados Women, all opposition batters can do is either rotate the strike to avoid facing her or pray. Renuka absolutely dismantled the Barbados top order with ease and crushed any hopes of a successful run-chase with a brilliant four-wicket haul.
Asked to bat first, India Women did well to get to a competitive score of 162 for the loss of four wickets. The early loss of Smriti Mandhana’s wicket and Harmanpreet Kaur’s golden duck did cause some apprehensions but the Women in Blue did well to bounce back from that setback.
The batting effort was primarily powered by Jemimah Rodrigues’ unbeaten half-century as she remained not out on 56 off 46 deliveries. Opening batter Shafali Verma also pounced on the Barbados bowlers by smashing 43 in just 26 balls.
Deepti Sharma also chipped in with a crucial knock of 34 not out off 28 deliveries to partner Jemimah and end the innings on a strong note after Barbados had dismissed captain Harmanpreet Kaur and Taniya Bhatia for single-digit scores. Shakera Selman proved to be the most effective bowler for the opponents as she dismissed Harmanpreet for a golden duck and also bowled at an economy rate of 5.00 in her spell of four overs.
Needing 163 to win, Barbados never really got going in the run-chase thanks to Renuka Singh’s jaw-dropping four-wicket burst in the powerplay itself. She removed opener Deandra Dotting for a duck after breaching through her defence. Renuka also managed to knock down the bails of Kycia Knight and Aaliyah Alleyne with unreadable deliveries.
Hayley Matthews tried to lead the counter charge watching the wreckage all around her but only found the hands of Shafali Verma with Renuka reducing Barbados Women to 19/4 inside the first five overs.
It goes without saying that Barbados Women never managed to recover from that early onslaught. With 16 runs, Kyshona Knight proved to be their highest scorer in the match but was eventually dismissed by Sneh Rana. The calamitous Barbados batting effort can also be summed up in the fact that only two batters – Kyshona Knight and Shakera Selman – managed to get into double digits.
Barbados Women managed just 62 runs in their overs as India Women won the game by 100 runs and progressing to the semi-finals in style. Their opponents in the knockouts are yet to be finalised as both New Zealand and England have a game left in hand.
