Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma fifties set up second successive win for Team India in Women’s T20 World Cup 2026, beat Dutch by…
Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma fifties set up second successive win for Team India in Women’s T20 World Cup 2026, beat Dutch by…
India Women's Smriti Mandhana and captain Harmanpreet Kaur during the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2026 Group A match between India Women and Pakistan Women, at Edgbaston in Birmingham on Sunday, June 14, 2026. (Photo: IANS)
The Indian women's team continued their super run of form to register their 2nd consecutive victory in the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2026. The Harmanpreet Kaur-led side's latest win came against the Netherlands by 95 runs through a splendid all-round performance after two incredible knocks from Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Varma from the top.
The Women in Blue, who won their maiden ODI World Cup less than 10 months ago, have begun in the best way possible and they will hope to use this push in high profile games coming up next. India will take on South Africa in their next Group A outing and conclude the first round against Australia on June 28.
The Indian opening duo of Mandhana (74 off 47 balls) and Shafali (55 off 38 balls) slayed a hapless Netherlands attack to fire India to 209/5, their highest total in the tournament history. The pair shared a 115-run stand off 70 balls after Netherlands put the opposition in to bat.
Smriti and Shafali also matched the record of the highest Indian powerplay total at the ICC Women's T20 World Cup when they scored 50/0 in the first 6 overs. India were at the same juncture for 59 but down to 3 wickets against Australia in the 2023 T20 World Cup semi-final in Cape Town.
Smriti Mandhana also scored her 6th overall half-century in the Women's T20 World Cup which helped her surpass Harmanpreet Kaur and Mithali Raj's record of 5 each. Smriti has now taken her run tally to 142 runs in two matches, overtaking Dani Wyatt-Hodge who has 121 runs.
However, India still needs some improvements down the batting order. After Smriti and Shafali's departures, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh, Harmanpreet Kaur and Deepti Sharma added just 19, 20, 12 and 10 runs respectively. Still India worked their way to 209 for 5.
In response, the Netherlands were never in the run chase despite promising knocks from skipper Babette de Leede (28 off 27 balls) and Sterre Kallis (18 off 13 balls) before being bundled out for 114 in 17.3 overs.
From India's point of view, the biggest scare came when off-spinner Shreyanka Patil was stretchered off the field after twisting her ankle while fielding off her very first ball of the evening. Yet, it was an overall successful day out for India.
Up next, India will take on South Africa in Manchester on Sunday, June 21.
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