Harmanpreet Kaur's unbeaten fifty led India to a comfortable victory over Bangladesh in the first match of the three-match T20I series in Dhaka on Saturday.

This was Bangladesh Women's team's first T20I match in Dhaka in 11 years.

“I believe we fell short by 20-25 runs on this type of wicket. We had a good start, but in the middle overs, we struggled with a high number of dot balls. It's an area we need to address,” said Nigar Sultana, the captain of the Bangladesh team, on the match.

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Winning the toss, India chose to bowl first and successfully restricted Bangladesh to a mere 114 runs for five wickets in 20 overs.

Although Bangladesh lost only one wicket during the powerplay, they failed to accumulate enough runs. Their first wicket fell in the fifth over, with the score at 27. They lost only one more wicket within the first 10 overs.

Shorna Akter top-scored with 28 runs for Bangladesh, while Shathi Rani and Sobhana Mostary were the other two batters to surpass the 20-run mark.

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Pooja Vastrakar, Pooja Vastrakar, and Shefali Verma each claimed one wicket for India.

In response, India lost their first wicket without any runs on the board when Shefali Verma was dismissed for a duck by Marufa Akter. However, they recovered from the early setback and comfortably reached the target in 16.2 overs with seven wickets in hand, with Harmanpreet remaining unbeaten for 54 off 35 balls. 

Sultana Khatun took two wickets for Bangladesh, but her efforts were insufficient to prevent a substantial defeat.

The next matches of the T20I series will be held on July 11th and 13th at the same venue.