Bangladesh 103 for 6 (Shamima 42, Vaidya 2-16) beat India 102 for 9 (Harmanpreet 40, Rabeya 3-16) by four wickets
Spin trouble for India
Like in the second T20I, India were once again troubled by the Bangladesh spinners. Smriti Mandhana’s troubles against offspin continued as she was dismissed off Sultana’s first ball. Mandhana was early on an attempted flick and managed to get a leading edge behind the wicketkeeper, where Fahima Khatun pouched it after running to her right from slip. In Sultana’s next over, Shafali Verma danced down the track and whipped the ball straight to long-on. This was after Shafali was kept quiet by seamer Marufa Akter, who denied her width outside off, along with Sultana, both of whom had two fielders deep on the leg side to cut down boundary-scoring options.
While Bangladesh bowled 16 overs of spin in the second T20I, they had spinners on for 17 overs on Thursday with India facing 44 dots against them.
Harmanpreet or bust
Coming on the back of a first-ball duck on Tuesday, Harmanpreet Kaur steadied the ship for India after finding herself in the middle, inside the powerplay again. She looked at ease against an on-song Sultana. In the company of Rodrigues, Harmanpreet calmed proceedings, often tapping the ball in front of cover and point for quick singles. She also used the sweep to good effect in an attempt to put the spinners off their lengths.
Harmanpreet first added 45 off 49 balls for the third wicket with Rodrigues and then another 26 with Yastika. She also hit the only six of the game, when she slinked down the track against Fahima’s legspin to deposit her over wide long-on. The legspinner went on to have Harmanpreet stumped in the 17th over to severely dent India’s progress at the death. In the end, India managed only 12 runs for six wickets in the last four overs to be restricted to 102 for 9.