Indian opener Shafali Verma earned the Aramco Player of the Match award on Thursday by scoring a blistering 53 off 34 balls against Bangladesh in Match 23 of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2026. Playing at Old Trafford in Manchester, her explosive batting helped India chase down Bangladesh’s total of 136/8 with 19 balls to spare. The assault cemented a decisive 5-wicket victory for India as they look to solidify their group stage dominance and semi-final hopes.
Entering the match following a recent victory over the Netherlands, India needed a strong start to maintain their momentum. Verma immediately dismantled the Bangladeshi bowling attack from the very first over. Her aggressive stroke play drove the team to 63/1 by the end of the six-over powerplay, securing India’s highest-ever powerplay score in the tournament’s history.
During the innings, Verma also crossed the 500-run milestone in the Women’s T20 World Cup. She achieved this with an all-time record strike rate of 133.07, statistically surpassing Australia’s Alyssa Healy, who previously held the record with a 129.39 scoring tempo among batters with 500 or more runs. The performance earned Verma her third T20 World Cup POTM award, placing her in an elite tier alongside Indian icons Smriti Mandhana and Mithali Raj, and trailing only Harmanpreet Kaur.
The decisive defeat complicates tournament positioning for the Bangladesh Women’s National Cricket Team. It adds to a difficult stretch for the nation’s broader cricket programs, occurring just days after Matt Renshaw held off Bangladesh by 7 runs to clinch a separate T20 series for Australia.