Defending champions India made a winning start to their ICC U19 Women's T20 World Cup 2025 campaign after brushing aside West Indies with a nine-wicket victory in their Group A opener at the Bayuemas Oval in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Sunday.After winning the toss and electing to field first, the Indian women’s U19 cricket team dominated proceedings from the get-go and picked up wickets at regular intervals to bundle out West Indies for 44 in 13.2 overs.VJ Joshitha, who was the Player of the Match, picked up India’s first two wickets off successive deliveries in the fourth over. She dismissed West Indies skipper Samara Ramnath before picking the scalp of Naijanni Cumberbatch for a duck with her very next ball.The next two overs saw Jahzara Claxton and Brianna Harricharan depart without troubling the scorers as West Indies found themselves in a world of trouble at 17-4 at the start of the sixth over.Asabi Callendar and Kenika Cassar tried to rebuild briefly but their partnership was broken as the former was run out in the eighth over.India also claimed their next two wickets through run outs as Abigail Bryce and Amiah Gilbert departed after contributing one run each to the total.Kenika Cassar, who was West Indies’ top-scorer on the day with 15 runs, was the next to make her way back to the dugout after she was bowled by Parunika Sisodia.The Windies’ last two batters were dismissed for ducks as Kristen Sutherland was bowled by Aayushi Shukla while Selena Ross was caught and bowled by Sisodia.In response, India made light work of the chase despite the loss of opener Gongadi Trisha, who had to depart after being caught and bowled by Claxton off the second ball of the innings.Sanika Chalke joined wicketkeeper batter G Kamalini in the middle following Trisha’s departure and the Indian duo stitched together a 43-run stand in four overs to chase down the target with ease.India will face Malaysia in their next fixture on Tuesday before meeting Sri Lanka for their last ICC U19 Women's T20 World Cup 2025 Group A match on Thursday.IND-W vs WI-W ICC U19 Women’s T20 World Cup 2025 brief scores: West Indies 44 in 13.2 overs (Kenika Cassar 15, Parunika Sisodia 3/7) lost to India 47/1 in 4.2 overs (Sanika Chalke 18*; Jahzara Claxton 1/18) by nine wickets.
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