Deepti Sharma and Shafali Verma held their nerves during death overs as India Women pulled off a nail-biting eight-run victory over their Bangladesh counterparts in the second T20I at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium in Mirpur on Tuesday, sealing the series with an unassailable 2-0 lead.

Off-spinner Sultana Khatun claimed a career-best 3/21 as Bangladesh restricted India to a modest 95/8, which was their lowest-ever total against the hosts in women’s T20I.

But Bangladesh then stumbled to 87 all out in 20 overs as India took a series-clinching lead with an inconsequential third and final game set to be played on Thursday.

Bangladesh were decently placed at 86/5 in the 19th over before losing their last five wickets for just one run in the space of eight deliveries in what seemed to be an inexplicable batting collapse.

The two young Indian spinners, offie Minnu Mani (2/9) and left-arm orthodox Anusha Bareddy (1/20), made early inroads before the seasoned duo of Deepti (3/12) and Shafali (3/15) pulled off a win with controlled bowling in the penultimate and final overs of the game.

Shafali, in fact, got all her wickets in the final over in which she gave away only a solitary run when 10 were needed with four wickets intact. Bangladesh’s chase was steered by skipper Nigar Sultana (38), who was the only batter of their side to reach double digits.

But the skipper failed to finish it off and was brilliantly stumped by Yastika Bhatia in the penultimate over bowled by Deepti that triggered the collapse.

Credit should also be given to skipper Harmanpreet Kaur for showing a lot of faith in giving full quota of overs to both Minnu and Anusha, who were equal to the task after making their debut in this series.

“We have a couple of young bowlers here who are going to take responsibility and bowl for us. It’s important for us to trust them. We are not going to hide them in the field,” Harmanpreet said.

Minnu, the first senior India woman cricketer from Kerala, dismissed Shamima Sultana who swept only to get a top-edge before being caught by Shafali. Spin from both ends yielded results as Deepti gave another breakthrough by picking up Shathi Rani (5) with Harmanpreet taking a fantastic one-handed catch at slip.

Brief scores:

India Women 95/8 in 20 ovs (S. Verma 19; S. Khatun 3/21).

Bangladesh Women 87 in 20 ovs (D. Sharma 3/12, S. Verma 3/15). India Women won by 8 runs.