India women’s team avoids a whitewash

Harmanpreet Kaur was back among the runs with a half-century as India defeated New Zealand in the fifth women’s ODI here on Thursday.

With the consolatory six-wicket victory, India avoided a whitewash in the 50-over assignment. Chasing 252 runs for its maiden win of the tour, the visitor got the job done with four overs to spare, courtesy of match-winning fifties from opener Smriti Mandhana (71 off 84 balls, 9 fours), Harmanpreet (63 off 66 balls, 6 fours, 1 six) and skipper Mithali Raj (57 not out off 66 balls, 6 fours).

Harmanpreet, who was dropped from the team for the previous match owing to her prolonged lean patch, must be relieved after scoring her first half-century in almost 12 months. The 32-year-old accumulated 64 runs with Mandhana for the third wicket and then shared a 72-run alliance with Mithali for the fourth.

Earlier, the India bowlers finally got their act together to restrict New Zealand to 251 for nine. Spinners Sneh Rana (2/40), Deepti Sharma (2/42) and Rajeshwari Gayakwad (2/61) shared six wickets between them in a match where the host was not up to the mark.

However, New Zealand No.3 Amelia Kerr (66 off 75 balls, 6 fours) continued her purple patch with a well-crafted fifty.

BRIEF SCORES: New Zealand 251/9 in 50 overs (Amelia 66, Sneh 2/40, Deepti 2/42, Rajeshwari 2/61) lost to India 255/4 in 46 overs (Mandhana 71, Harmanpreet 63, Mithali 57*)