Fourth T20: Mannat Kashyap bags five-for as India Under-19 beat New Zealand by 29 runs

Left-arm spinner Mannat Kashyap picked up a five-wicket haul as India Under-19 defeated the New Zealand development team by 29 runs in the fourth T20 of the five-match series, at the Mumbai Cricket Association’s ground in Bandra Kurla Complex on Sunday.

Building up towards the inaugural edition of the ICC Women’s U19 T20 World Cup, which will be played in South Africa from January, India continued their impressive form to take a 4-0 lead in the series.

Captain Shweta Sehrawat won the toss and opted to bat first again. It ended up being the most competitive match of the series so far. The hosts were restricted to 121/9 but they fought back with the ball and bowled-out the visitors for 92 runs in 18.3 overs.

Sehrawat couldn’t get going with the bat again and was dismissed for 2 off 5 over but the in-form G Trisha, who was promoted up the order to open, went on to get the top score of the match with 39 runs off 34 balls.

The right-hander from Hyderabad was her usual aggressive self throughout and hit six fours and a six in her knock.

However, the second-highest contribution for India came from extras (26 runs) as only two other batters could manage to get double-digit scores. Archana Devi (15 off 22) and Parshavi Chopra (17* off 15) made valuable runs down the order to guide their team to a respectable total.

There was chaos of sorts in the middle order as Soumya Tiwari, who had opened in the first three games, was run-out for 7 off 17 at the non-striker’s end after coming to the crease at No 3. And to make matters worse, Hurley Gala and Soniya Mendhiya, in at No 4 and 5 respectively, were also run-out.

Right-arm pacer Kayley Knight (2/20) and leg-spinner Ocean Bartlett (2/16), who led New Zealand in the first two games but missed out on the third one, bowled impressive spells for the visitors. If it wasn’t for the many extras, India would’ve found themselves under pressure while bowling.

However, Kashyap’s bowling ensured India registered a relatively comfortable victory at the end. The left-arm spinner took the new ball and started her spell by getting hit for a hat-trick of fours by Olivia Gain, but she bounced back strongly to return with figures of 5/25 from 3.3 overs.

It was Gala, who claimed identical bowling figures of 3/18 in the first two games before sitting out the third one, who got the crucial wicket of Gain, who had scored a 35-ball 40 in the previous game. Gala, playing on her home ground, has picked a wicket in the first over in each of the three matches she has played in this series.

Right-arm pacer Shabnam, who had also returned to the side, bowled an impressive opening spell and picked the wickets of Nensi Patel and Izzy Gaze.

New Zealand found themselves at 37/4 from 9.4 overs in the chase before the Indian spinners dried up the boundaries and Kashyap eventually ran through the lower order.

There is one match left in the series and the Indian team, coached by former international cricketer Nooshin Al Khadeer, will surely be eyeing a clean sweep.

India U19 women’s squad for T20s vs New Zealand: Shweta Sehrawat (c), Shikha Shalot, Trisha G, Soumya Tiwari (vc), Sonia Mehdiya, Hurley Gala, Hrishita Basu (WK), Nandini Kashyap (wk), Sonam Yadav, Mannat Kashyap, Archana Devi, Parshavi Chopra, Titas Sadhu, Falak Naz, Shabnam MD.

Read the full scorecard of the fourth T20 here.