Women's World Cup: Rain plays spoilsport; India v Bangladesh clash abandoned

Navi Mumbai, Oct 26 (IANS) Heavy rain, which started around 10 pm, caused the last league match of the ICC Women's ODI World Cup between India and Bangladesh to be called off with no result at the Dr DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Sunday.

Chasing a DLS revised target of 126 in 27 overs, India were 57 for no loss in 8.4 overs when another heavy drizzle forced the players into the dugout. With it looking impossible to bowl the minimum overs required to consider it a completed match, umpires Lauren Agenbag and Sue Redfern, in consultation with other match officials, decided to call it off as a washout.

Smriti Mandhana was batting on 34 off 27 balls with Amanjot Kaur, filling in as the opener after Pratika Rawal slipped and hurt her knee and ankle while attempting to stop a boundary during the Bangladesh innings, batting on 13 when the match was called off.

With both teams getting one point each, India finished fourth with seven points from three wins and one no-result. Bangladesh ended seventh in the standings with three points, the same as Pakistan. They were placed higher in the standings because they won one match while Pakistan were winless.

Rain played havoc with the match from the afternoon, first delaying the toss by 30 minutes and then preventing play for two periods of two hours each, thus shaving off four and a half hours from the total eight-hour match.

Asked to bat first, Bangladesh found the going tough and could manage to score only 34/1 in the nine overs of Power-play.

The Indians continued to keep things quiet as Bangladesh could not score a boundary for more than 50 balls. They lost skipper Nigar Sultana Joty to a fine piece of fielding by Radha Yadav, running her out for 9 off 24 balls.

Seasoned left-arm spinner Radha Yadav was their chief tormentor with the ball as she bagged 3-30 in six overs while N Shree Charani claimed 2-23.

Sharmin Akhter (36 in 53 balls, 4x4) and Sobhana Mostary kept the fight going for Bangladesh, adding some quick runs to the score with Mostary hitting Deepti for boundaries off consecutive balls. In the earlier over, she had dispatched a short one to the deep midwicket boundary off Radha Yadav.

India had a huge scare when opener Pratika Rawal twisted her ankle while charging in to prevent a boundary struck by Sharmin Akhter off Deepti Sharma. She slipped on the wet ground, twisted her ankle, and had to go out with the help of the physio.

Mostary (26, 21 balls, 4x4) was sent back by Radha Yadav, getting her to offer a straight catch to Harleen Deol at mid-off as Bangladesh slipped to 94/4 after 22 overs. They managed to reach 119/9, which India could have chased easily if the rain had not played spoilsport once again.

--IANS

bsk/ab