Devine slams fastest T20 fifty to floor India

New Zealand Women 126 for 2 (Devine 70, Satterthwaite 39*) beat India Women 125 (Raj 35, Broadmore 3-16) by eight wickets
Scorecard

Sophie Devine slammed the fastest fifty in T20Is to stun India women and set New Zealand women up for a massive eight-wicket win in the first T20I in Bangalore. With New Zealand chasing 126, Devine struck eight sixes and five fours to reach her half-century off 18 balls, breaking the record previously held by Deandra Dottin (22 balls). She ended with 70 off 22 balls, a strike-rate of 318.18, and shared an 89-run second-wicket partnership with Amy Satterthwaite which came at an astounding run-rate of 19.07 per over.

Satterthwaite remained unbeaten on 39 from 35 balls and put on 35 runs for the third wicket with debutant Leigh Kasperek to guide the visitors home with 45 balls to spare.

Earlier, India, having been inserted, put on 41 in 4.5 overs, thanks mainly to the captain Mithali Raj. However, Morna Nielsen struck on the last ball of the fifth over to trap Vellaswamy Vanitha lbw for 8. That wicket opened the floodgates as Kasperek and Kate Broadmore struck at regular intervals to reduce the hosts to 85 for 7 by the 14th over. A 27-run, eighth-wicket partnership between Sneh Rana and Sushma Verma took India past 110 but after Rana's wicket, the hosts soon folded for 125.

Jhulan Goswami struck in the first over of New Zealand's innings to remove Rachel Priest for 2, and Rajeswari Gayakwad ended Devine's blitzkrieg in the sixth over, but by then, the damage had already been done, as the visitors secured a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.