India thumps the Dutch and Australia routs Bangladesh at Women's T20 World Cup

Audio By Carbonatix

LEEDS, England (AP) — Shafali Verma answered doubts again about her Twenty20 production and reliability with a milestone 55 runs in a big India win over the Netherlands at the Women's World Cup on Wednesday.

In their first ever T20 matchup, India posted its highest T20 World Cup total of 209-5 and limited the Dutch to 114 for a win by 95 runs, India's biggest by runs in tournament history.

On the same Headingley pitch earlier, Australia also remained unbeaten after restricting Bangladesh to 77-8 and winning by nine wickets in less than 10 overs.

Injuries also grabbed headlines. Australia's Phoebe Litchfield, who opened the tournament with 50 against South Africa, was out for three games with a quad issue and Ash Gardner missed the Bangladesh win with an ankle sprain.

England captain Nat Sciver-Brunt will miss two games after re-injuring her left calf. She retired on 48 against Ireland on Tuesday. And India allrounder Shreyanka Patil had to be carted off after possibly twisting her ankle on Wednesday.

Verma came to the World Cup averaging 23.13 runs this year compared to 52.12 last year when she restored her big-hitting reputation. Then she was out for 6 against Pakistan but raised her first World Cup fifty against the Netherlands.

She happened to be dropped at cover at the same time as reaching 50 off 34 balls, and she was out for 55 including 10 boundaries.

“Happy to be back with some runs. I just practiced hard to get my shots again,” Verma said. “When balls were not coming on I just went for singles so it was a mature innings.”

Her opening partnership with Smriti Mandhana ended at 115 in the 12th over. Mandhana hit four boundaries in a row off Silver Siegers and made back-to-back World Cup fifties off 36 balls. She was out for 74 off 47 in the 16th.

Topping off Verma's day, she became only the third player in a Women's World Cup game to score a fifty and take three wickets after the West Indies' Hayley Matthews and South Africa's Sune Luus.

Verma's off-spin took 3-20 and slow left-armer Shree Charani grabbed 4-19 including three wickets in one over as the Netherlands collapsed from 96-3 to 114 all out in 17.3 overs.

Australia replied to Bangladesh's 77-8 with 78-1 in 9.3 overs. Next for the six-time champion is newcomer the Netherlands on Saturday.

Georgia Voll responded to her duck on World Cup debut against South Africa with an unbeaten 45 off 32 balls including a six back over the bowler's head.

On a seamer's pitch under overcast skies, Kim Garth took the first two Bangladesh wickets in the powerplay including Juairiya Ferdous, who scored 50 against the Netherlands but was pinned on 8.

Also taking two wickets were captain Sophie Molineux and Ellyse Perry, the player of the match.

At 27-5 in the eighth over Bangladesh was at risk of eclipsing its own World Cup record low total of 46. But it passed that mark in the 15th over.

“We have been looking for a few players like power hitters,” captain Nigar Sultana said. ”It's pretty difficult to find batters like that."

___

AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket