Sophie Devine hits 18 ball fifty to give New Zealand Women 1-0 lead

Sophie Devine just single handedly took the match away from Indian women as New Zealand destroyed India by 8 wickets in the first of the three T20 Internationals to be played. Devine struck the fastest fifty, of just 18 balls as she annihilated all the Indian bowlers and ended with 70 of just 22 balls with 8 sixes and 5 fours. She along with Amy Satterthwaite stitched together an 89 run partnership which came at an astonishing run rate of 19.07 per over.

Satterthwaite played the supportive hand and finished with 39 from 35 balls and had a 35 run partnership for the 3 wicket with the debutant Leigh Kasperek to seal the match for the visitors.

Earlier, India were put into bat, and apart from Mithali Raj, nobody could score more than 20. They reached 41 from just 4.5 overs, when Morna Nielsen struck with the last ball of the 5 over to remove Vellaswamy Vanitha lbw for 8. After that, it was the lack of application in the middle due to which wickets kept falling at regular intervals and hence India ended with only 125 on the board from 19.5 overs.

New Zealand were under pressure early as Jhulan Goswami removed Rachel Priest in the first over. But what hit India then, even they couldn’t understand and by the end of 5 and a half overs New Zealand reached 91 runs when Devine went back to pavilion after creating a record. A mere formality was left which was completed by Satterthwaite and Kasperek as Kiwis won by 8 wickets with 45 balls to spare.

India will look to recover from this beating that they got as they would look to win the second T20 to stay alive in the series to be played on Monday, 13 July 2015.

Image Credits: Photo by Martin Hunter/Getty Images