Bangalore: It was an exceptionally wonderful start by Indian women’s team in 2016 ICC World Twenty20 tournament as they earned a 72-run victory against Bangladesh at M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on Tuesday.

India recorded their highest total in T20 format in the match as they scored 165 runs in 20 overs with five wickets remaining. Stupendous performance came from the top batting order of the team. The bowlers also performed well to stop Bangladesh all at 95/5 at the end of 20 overs.

Mithali Raj and Valleswamy Vanitha joined hands to put up a first wicket partnership of 62 runs. Though Smriti Mandhana was quite out of her form, but it didn’t cost much to the team, as Harmanpreet Kaur came in with flying colours and scored a magnificient 40 out of 29 balls. She even bagged the Man-of-the-Match trophy. Later, Veda Krishnamurthy added 36 runs to the scoreboard. Among the Bangladeshi bowlers, Fahima Khatun and Rumana Ahmed clinched two wickets each.

In the second half, outstanding performance came from Anuja Patil and Poonam Yadav. The former took two wickets in exchange of 17 runs in 4 overs and the latter gave 16 runs and managed to send two of the players back to the pavilion. Jhulan Goswami also bowled well by giving only 17 runs in 4 overs. None of the Bangladeshi batsman could do well with the bat. Nigan Sultana’s 27 runs remained the highest individual score among them.

This is the eighth time that Indian women faced Bangladesh in T20 international format and India had won all of them! Mithali Raj and her team started off the tournament on a bright note.

India Women 163 for 5 (Raj 42, Harmanpreet 40) beat Bangladesh Women 91 for 5 (Sultana 27*, Patil 2-16, Poonam 2-17) by 72 runs