Mandhana, spinners lead rout of Windies

Taunton, June 30
Opener Smriti Mandhana struck a sizzling 106 off 108 balls as the Indian women beat West Indies by seven wickets to secure their second consecutive win in the ICC Women’s World Cup here today.
Set a target of 184, India rode on Smriti’s century and her 108-run partnership with captain Mithali Raj (46 off 88 balls) to win by a comfortable margin, with 7.3 overs remaining.
Smriti, who had made an impressive 90 during India’s shock win over England in their opening match, struck 13 fours and two sixers in her innings.
Spin trap
Earlier, India’s spin troika of left-arm spinners Poonam Yadav and Deepti Sharma, and off-spinner Harmanpreet Kaur had restricted West Indies to a lowly 183/8.
Mithali Raj opted to field after winning the toss and West Indies were comfortably placed at 69/1 in the 19th over before things fell apart and the current World T20 champions were left tottering at 91/6.
Deepti (2/27 in 10 overs), Poonam (2/19 in 10 overs) and Harmanpreet (2/42 in 10 overs) shared the bulk of the spoils as opener Hayley Mathews top-scored with 43. Apart from the trio, the other impressive performer was another left-arm spinner, Ekta Bisht, who had figures of 1/23 in 10 overs. The normally economical Jhulan Goswami (0/37 in 6 overs) went for runs as Mathews hit seven boundaries during her 57- ball knock.
Shanel Daley (33) and Afy Fletcher (36) showed some defiance down the order, taking the score past 180, which at one point looking improbable.
Between overs 20 and 35, the West Indies innings went haywire at the County ground, a venue which was ruled by Sir Vivian Richards during his days for Somerset in county cricket.
The Caribbean batters found it difficult to score against leg-break bowler Poonam and the tight wicket-to-wicket bowling from Deepti and Ekta. Harmanpreet went for some runs but got crucial breakthroughs. If West Indies managed to cross 180, it was due to Fletcher and her 37-run stand with Anisa Mohammed (11).