Smriti Mandhana made a brilliant start to her stint at the Women’s Big Bash League as the 22-year-old opener scored a 24-ball fifty to guide Hobart Hurricanes to an easy win over Melbourne Stars on Sunday.
Batting first, the Hurricanes lost opener Erin Fazackerley, but Mandhana stitched together a solid partnership with Hayley Matthews (42 off 30 deliveries) to steady the innings. Mandhana ended up scoring 69 off 41 balls with the help of 13 boundaries and the Hurricanes posted a big total of 196/6 in 20 overs.
In reply, Heather Knight took three wickets while Veronica Pyke and Meg Phillips claimed two each as Melbourne Stars were bundled out for 124 in 16.5 overs. Angela Reakes (31 off 24 balls) and Annabel Sutherland (23 off 14 balls) tried to chase down the total but were unable to stitch together a proper partnership.
{{/usCountry}}In reply, Heather Knight took three wickets while Veronica Pyke and Meg Phillips claimed two each as Melbourne Stars were bundled out for 124 in 16.5 overs. Angela Reakes (31 off 24 balls) and Annabel Sutherland (23 off 14 balls) tried to chase down the total but were unable to stitch together a proper partnership.
{{/usCountry}}Harmanpreet Kaur also had a great outing as the India skipper as she scored 56 off 26 balls and then took the wicket of Jemma Barsby to guide Sydney Thunder to victory over Brisbane Heat.
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Earlier after the Mithali Raj-Ramesh Powar controversy in the aftermath of the Women’s World T20, Indian T20I skipper Harmanpreet and vice-captain Mandhana wrote a letter to the BCCI requesting them to keep Ramesh Powar as the head coach of the Indian women’s cricket team.