Women's World Cup: Spinners help Indian eves restrict West Indies to 183/8 in 50 overs

India's spin troika of left-arm spinners Poonam Yadav and Deepti Sharma, and off-spinner Harmanpreet Kaur restricted the West Indies to a lowly 183 for 8 in their second league game of the ICC Women's World Cup on Thursday. Mithali Raj opted to field and West Indies were comfortably placed at 69 for one in the 19th over before things fell apart and the current World T20 champions were tottering at 91 for 6.

Deepti (2/27 in 10 overs), Poonam (2/19 in 10 overs) and Harmanpreet (2/42 in 10 overs) shared bulk of the spoils with opener Hayley Mathews being the top-scorer with 43. Shanel Daley (33) and Afy Fletcher (36) showed some defiance down the order taking the score to plus 180, which at one point in time was looking improbable.

Apart from the trio, the other impressive performer was another left-arm spinner Ekta Bisht (1/23 in 10 overs). The normally economical Jhulan Goswami (0/37 in 6 overs) went for runs as Mathews hit seven boundaries during her 57- ball knock.

However between overs 20 and 35, West Indies innings went haywire at the County ground -- a venue which was ruled by Sir Vivian Richards during his days for Somerset in county cricket. The Caribbean batters found it difficult to hit leg-break bowler Poonam and the tight wicket to wicket bowling from Deepti and Ekta. Harmanpreet went for some runs but got crucial breakthroughs.

If West Indies managed to cross 180, it was due to Fletcher and her 37-run stand with Anisa Mohammed (11).