IND Women vs WI Women, 3rd Match at East London, SA Tri-Series, Jan 23 2023 - Match Result

A somewhat one-sided affair as India ticked many a box. West Indies showed that they have the skill and power to get the upper hand for some chunks of the game. They'll need to extend those runs when they take on hosts South Africa on the 25th. Let's hope for a great contest there. See you then. For now, I'm Ekanth signing off on behalf of my report-writing co-commentator Sudarshanan, and our scorer, Harshith.

Smriti Mandhana is the POTM: The pitch was similar to the first game, but we understood our mistakes. We assessed the wicket better today, we targeted 145. That was different in the last game. We discussed that we won't go hard from the first ball. So the team asked me to bat sensibly in the first few overs and then our partnership grew and my confidence grew. So I could go express myself.

Harmanpreet Kaur, India Captain: We didn't want to hurry up at any cost, keeping wickets can always give you confidence. Executing whatever we discussed at the team meetings is what we did. We had to bat really well on these wickets as runs aren't easy to get. Credit goes to Smriti for batting on, I could keep giving her strike early on and take charge later. I was not available for the last game, so it was very important for me to get runs. Whenever you come back, it's new days and situations for you. So I'm very happy to have gotten those runs.

Hayley Matthews, West Indies Captain: She led by example which was good to see. The Indian batting was good, they played a good knock. We dropped a few catches which did not help. Must-win game against South Africa, we want to improve and do well.

10:01pm: A comprehensive 56-run win for India. Set up by Harman and Mandhana with the bat. Deepti almost closed the lid in the powerplay, which ended with West Indies on 25 for 2. They struggled till the tenth, having lost Gajnabi along with the openers. India bowled wicket-to-wicket, bowled to their fields and dried up boundaries. So Matthews took on Vaidya and even Deepti at times, the threat of the result not going India's way was low. West Indies' batters did not look up to the mark at the top, Cooper was trapped first ball. Williams was unlucky to have been given out stumped but blurry replays and no TV umpires meant she could not get the reprieve. Campbelle could not get going, Matthews started slow too but they exhibited sparking strokeplay to go over 110, which seemed unlikely at the ten-over mark with WI being 39 for 3.

Tintin: "Harman should give herself a bowl for the last over. Good to stay in touch and then there is nothing to lose. " Good point, but it'll be Pandey which is also a fair choice

Bowler stops in follow-through. Reloads. Around