WI vs IND, 5th T20I: Veda Krishnamurthy, Jemimah Rodrigues steer India to a convincing win

Jemimah Rodrigues and Veda Krishnamurthy scored the fifties while Anuja Patil's 2 for 3 made the winning foundation for India, thrashing West Indies by a whopping 62 runs in the fifth T20I at Providence Stadium in Guyana on Wednesday (November 20). With this win, India whitewashed West Indies in a T20I series for the first time by 5-0.

India made a couple of changes in their squad where regular captain Harmanpreet Kaur and all-rounder Deepti Sharma have been rested. Stand-in captain Smriti Mandhana won the toss and elected to bat first. The decision looked in favour of the hosts at first as they dismissed both the openers - Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana.

Hayley Matthews provided with the first breakthrough when she sent back Shafali Verma for mere 9. Although she hit a maximum off Anisa Mohammed in the second over, she failed to utilise the full-toss to another big one-off Matthews and hit straight to her who did no mistake and took a well-judged catch.

The next over saw the dismissal of in-form Smriti Mandhana who got out after giving an easy catch to Matthews off Anisa Mohammed at long-off. India were 17 for 2 in 3.1 overs when Jemimah Rodrigues and Veda Krishnamurthy started building the partnership.

West Indies spinners - Matthews, Anisa Mohammed and Afy Fletcher gave them no room to open their arms. Both Rodrigues and Krishnamurthy steadied the ship by rotating strike where they put up 49 runs after 10 overs.

After that, both the players changed their gear as the boundaries started coming as well. The hosts showed a poor performance while fielding. There were a couple of misfields and missed chances Veda Krishnamurthy got lives a couple of times when Matthews failed to grab one. Even Shemaine Campbelle, the wicket-keeper, also missed a chance soon after.

Veda soon scored her second ODI half-century off 43 balls which was her first in 28 innings across formats. Jemimah, on the other hand, also scored another fifty. The duo added 117 runs for the third wicket which was India’s highest partnership for the third wicket in T20Is, surpassing Harmanpreet Kaur and Krishnamurthy's partnership which came against West Indies earlier in 2016.

While Jemimah got dismissed for 50 off 56, Krishnamurthy remained unbeaten at 57 and India put up a decent competitive total of 134 for 3 after their allotted 20 overs. Hayley Matthews, Anisa Mohammed and Aaliyah Alleyne took 1 wicket each for West Indies.

While chasing, Kyshona Knight, with many surprises, came to open the innings in place of Matthews. Although Natasha McLean got off to a maximum, she was the first batter to be missed for mere 9 off Anuja Patil. Patil trapped Chedean Nation before the stumps in the same over for a golden duck.

Knight scored a 39-ball 22 before getting dismissed. She hit the outside off delivery straight to Pooja Vastrakar at covers. Indian bowlers gave them no chance to settle down in the middle. Apart from Knight, Shemaine Campbelle reached the double-figure and remained unbeaten for 19.

Fall of wickets at regular interval and failed to make a partnership, saw them scoring just 73 runs in 20 overs. Anuja Patil finished with a stunning figure of 2 for 3 while Radha Yadav, Poonam Yadav, Pooja Vastrakar and Harleen Deol bagged one wicket each for India.

Brief Scores: India 134/3 in 20 overs (Veda Krishnamurthy 57*, Jemimah Rodrigues 50; Hayley Matthews 1-23, Aaliyah Alleyne 1-23) beat West Indies 73/7 in 20 overs (Kyshona Knight 22; Anuja Patil 2-3) by 62 runs.