1st T20I: Renuka Singh Thakur stars as India take 1-0 lead against Bangladesh with strong win

Team India registered a rather comfortable victory in the first T20I of the five-match series against Bangladesh in Sylhet on Sunday, April 28 as the bowlers starred with a fine performance. Renuka Singh Thakur led the response with the ball for the Women in Blue with a couple of wickets in the powerplay before the likes of Deepti Sharma and Pooja Vastrakar got into action as the Indian team ended up on the winning side by a sizeable margin of 44 runs.

Apart from skipper Nigar Sultana, who smashed a half-century, none of the batters offered much resistance for Bangladesh and losing regular wickets didn't help even though the target



wasn't a big one. All five bowlers got their name in the wickets column with Renuka getting three of them and Vastrakar ending up with a brace.

The spin trio of Deepti, Radha Yadav and Shreyanka Patil got a wicket each as India restricted Bangladesh to just 101 to take a 1-0 lead in the series.

Earlier, contributions from all through the batting order helped the Indian team get to a competitive score of 145 on that slow surface at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium. Vice-captain Smriti Mandhana got out cheaply but Shafali Verma and Yastika Bhatia with a 43-run stand took the innings forward for the visitors.