Radha Yadav and Deepti Sharma celebrate a wicket with Renuka Singh Thakur • Getty Images
The final flourish
Rodrigues turned the screws in the 16th over when she went after Shakera Selman. Making room to access the offside, Rodrigues displayed her strong bottom-handed stroke play as she walloped a full-length delivery down the ground for six and followed that with a slap over cover to a perfectly acceptable length delivery two balls later.
Deepti Sharma, another player who has profited immensely from time in overseas leagues, was an able ally. She used the long handle from time to time, finishing with an unbeaten 28-ball 34, as India smashed 58 off the last five overs.
Renuka’s rampage
Four nights after she announced herself with a new-ball burst for the ages against Australia, she was at it again. Off her third ball of the innings, she sent back a charging Deandra Dottin for a duck. Two balls into her second over, she had Hayley Matthews who picked out mid-on. T
hen she was persisted with for a third straight over in what was an excellent bit of captaincy from Harmanpreet, and Renuka all but sealed it with the wickets of Kycia Knight – played on – and Aaliyah Alleyne, who was done in by a devious in-swinger that she left on a length to find her stumps flattened. At 19 for 4 in five overs, Barbados were starting at the inevitable.
India’s spinners then got into the game and made merry, the returning Pooja Vastrakar got some game-time ahead of bigger battles and their fielders took catches that had coach Ramesh Powar yelp in excitement. The ghosts of Australia, where they let it slip from a winning position, weren’t going to have another field day. This was as emphatic as it could get. (ESPNcricinfo)
