Women's Twenty20 Asia Cup | India batter Bangladesh by 64 runs in tournament opener

Brief scores: India 118/6 (Mithali Raj 49*, Smriti Mandhana 41; Khadija Tul Kubra 2-12) beat Bangladesh 54/10 (Shaila Sharmin 18, Salma Khatun 17; Poonam Yadav 3-13, Anuja Patil 2-7) by 64 runs.

Having lost the toss, India were put in to bat by Bangladesh and they made their neighbours pay as both openers, Mithali Raj and Smriti Mandhana, got off to good starts. Mandhana particularly impressed scoring 41 off just 32 balls, in an innings that included 6 boundaries, before she was sent packing by Jahanara Alam with the scoreboard reading 70 in just 12 overs. 

Harmanpreet Kaur then set up a partnership with Raj for the third wicket taking the score to 118 off the allotted 20 overs.

The second innings was an exceptional performance by the Indian bowlers who never let any Bangladesh batsman settle. Shaila Sharmin (18) and Salma Khatun (17) were the top scorers for Bangladesh as they managed to reach a score of just 54. For India, Poonam Yadav claimed three victims while Jhulan Goswami and Anuja Patil both sent two batsman packing.

The team will now face Thailand tomorrow in their second game in Bangkok.