India Women Beat Zimbabwe Women by 121 Runs — Harmanpreet Kaur's 126 and Deepti Sharma's 106 Not Out Seal the Series 2-0

Nineteen for 2 in the third over, the captain gone for a duck off the fourth ball of the match. Then 148 for 4 in the 24th, two wickets in eight balls, and the Zimbabwe fielders beginning to believe. What followed was the kind of afternoon that explains why India's middle order is spoken of the way it is. Harmanpreet Kaur made 126 off 121 balls and Deepti Sharma 106 not out off 86, their fifth-wicket stand of 153 carrying India to 328 for 6.

Zimbabwe reached 107 for 1 in the 22nd over of the chase, which was further than they had got in the first ODI, but Vaishnavi Sharma's 4 for 39 in only her second ODI and Deepti's three late wickets ended it at 207 in the 49th over. India Women won by 121 runs, lead the three-match series 2-0, and have won it with a game to spare. According to ESPNcricinfo, it is Smriti Mandhana's first series win as full-time ODI captain.

Mandhana chose to bat and was gone in the first over, a shortish ball from Nomvelo Sibanda holding in the pitch and spooning to Loryn Phiri at short third. Sibanda struck again in the third over when Shafali Verma pulled hard but straight to Nyasha Gwanzura at midwicket, who took it an inch off the ground. India were 19 for 2. Harmanpreet attacked from the start, cutting Sibanda past point and driving Tendai Makusha, while Pratika Rawal was watchful outside off before opening up. Rawal shovelled Makusha over long-on for six and later lofted Phiri over mid-off; those were India's only two sixes of the innings. She reached her ninth ODI fifty off 57 balls and Harmanpreet followed off 51. The pair added 124 in 118 balls.

Then Zimbabwe struck twice in eight deliveries. Rawal slog-swept Gwanzura and Beloved Biza held her nerve a step inside the deep-midwicket rope; next over Tejal Hasabnis sliced Olinder Chare high to mid-on, where Michelle Mavunga ran back and took an excellent catch. At 148 for 4 the innings was open again. Deepti Sharma shut it. She swept the spinners from outside off, pulled anything short and cut whatever had width, going from 16 to 55 in 23 balls. Harmanpreet was content to rotate strike between her boundaries. Josephine Nkomo dropped her at short midwicket on 68, and more chances went down later. Harmanpreet reached her eighth ODI hundred in the 41st over and was finally caught at long-off in the 47th, toe-ending a slot ball. Deepti went into the last over on 97, swept Makusha for four to get there, then hit the next ball to the fence as well. ESPNcricinfo reported the 153-run stand as a record fifth-wicket partnership for India in women's ODIs, and Deepti's hundred as her second in the format, 3450 days after her first in 2017.

With the ball, the newest member of India's spin attack did the most. Vaishnavi Sharma, in for the rested Kranti Gaud, took her maiden ODI wicket when she changed her angle to Modester Mupachikwa, drew a sliced cut, and watched substitute Harleen Deol dive forward at backward point. She then had Biza lbw after a successful review, bowled Mavunga, and trapped Nkomo lbw: 10-1-39-4. Deepti finished the job with two in two balls in the 46th over, Gwanzura lbw and Sibanda caught at slip by Hasabnis, to go with her hundred.

Chasing 329, Zimbabwe started as if they meant it. Mupachikwa cut Sayali Satghare for four off each of the first two balls, and after Shree Charani had Phiri caught for 6 in the ninth over, Chipo Mugeri-Tiripano took two boundaries off Deepti's first over and three off Charani in the 13th. Mupachikwa and Mugeri-Tiripano added 69 for the second wicket and Zimbabwe were 107 for 1 in the 22nd over. Both looked set for fifties and neither got there. Satghare beat Mugeri-Tiripano's drive to knock back off stump for 46, and Mupachikwa fell for 49 in the 28th. From 107 for 1 to 120 for 3 in 32 balls, and the required rate kept climbing.

Biza made 34 and Nkomo 22 in a stand of 34 that kept the scoreboard moving, but once Vaishnavi had Biza lbw at 154, the last six wickets went for 53. There was still a fair amount to admire in the field: Gwanzura's low catch, Mavunga's running take at mid-on, Biza's composure on the rope. The drop on Harmanpreet, with chances missed later on, was the difference between a chase of 329 and something closer to reach. With the ball, Sibanda's four overs brought two wickets for 38; the new-ball plan worked. Makusha's ten overs cost 71 and Chare's nine cost 61 as the fifth-wicket pair found the gaps. After a nine-wicket defeat on October 23, 207 chasing 329 and a 69-run stand that had India's spinners searching for answers is a small step, honestly earned.

The fall of wickets tells the story more plainly than any paragraph can. India lost their third and fourth wickets at 143 and 148, in the 23rd and 24th overs, and did not lose another until 301 in the 47th. Zimbabwe's two quick wickets had been earned by exactly the plan a side chasing a game needs: spin at a new batter, catchers on the rope. Deepti's answer was to attack the spinners before they could settle, and Harmanpreet, dropped on 68, kept the strike turning. India were 216 for 4 at the second drinks break after 34 overs; the stand went past a hundred in 89 balls and past 150 in 134. In the chase there was a mirror image: Zimbabwe were 107 for 1 in the 22nd over, and Satghare's off stump and Vaishnavi's first ODI wicket took the two set batters inside 32 balls of each other. One side had a fifth-wicket pair to absorb the blow; the other did not.

Harmanpreet came in at 1 for 1 in the first over and left at 301 for 5 in the 47th. In between she made 126 off 121 balls with 15 fours and no sixes, shared 124 with Rawal and 153 with Deepti, and reached fifty off 51 balls before her eighth ODI hundred in the 41st over. The scorecard records her toe-ending a slot ball to long-off, and the physio attending to both batters late on as the conditions took their toll. The innings was a reminder that the biggest contribution a senior batter can make on a day when the captain has gone for nought is to remain there until the shape of the match has changed, and then a little longer.

This match didn't have a CricIntel preview — we'll have full analysis for the next encounter.

The series is decided, and the third ODI is on October 28 at the same ground. India have already used the gap in the series to give Vaishnavi Sharma a game in place of Kranti Gaud, and she repaid it with four wickets; whether others are rested will be the first thing to check at the toss. Mandhana's two ODIs as full-time captain have brought 32 and 0 with the bat, and a series win. For Zimbabwe, the questions are the familiar ones from the first game: Mupachikwa and Mugeri-Tiripano both got into the forties here and could not go on, Biza keeps making runs, and the attack needs to find a way to take wickets between the 24th and 47th overs, where this match was decided.