Jaya Sharma cracks 96 as India record nine wicket win

India 211 for 1 (Sharma 96*, Jain 58) beat New Zealand 207 for 7 by 9 wickets
Scorecard

Jaya Sharma played a stellar role, for the second time in as many matches, as the Indian Women romped home to a facile nine wicket victory against New Zealand in the second one-dayer at Aurangabad. After the bowlers had done an excellent job of restricting the visitors to only 207, the Indians lost only one wicket as they finished the job with more than two overs to spare.

The story was similar to the first one-dayer in Mumbai, that India won, as New Zealand were kept on a tight leash from the beginning. The Indian spinners came to the fore and teased the batsmen all day with Nooshin Al Khadeer finishing up as the most successful bowler with two wickets. Amita Sharma, Deepa Kulkarni and Neetu David also bowled a nagging line and dried up the runs to a great extent.

Maia Lewis (47), the captain, Haidee Tiffen (44) and Kate Pulford (37) chipped in with useful contributions but the runs came at a crawl and New Zealand lost their way in the middle-overs. In the end, Lewis's knock took them past two hundred and gave them some chance.

The Indian openers kept abreast with the run-rate and never found themselves in any trouble. Sharma cracked 11 fours in her fine innings and Anju Jain proved an ideal foil. Jain, unhurried throughout he stay, fell shortly after making her fifty, but that was when the fun began. Mihali Raj unveiled some classical shots as a flurry of boundaries were executed. She raced to 38 of just 34 balls and finished the match with a flourish as India took a 2-0 lead in the five match series.