Isani Vaghela's suitcase may be running out of room for the trip back to America after she collected yet another Player of the Match award for her half-century in another win for USA Women over Vanuatu. 

Photo Credit: ICC

By Peter Della Penna (Twitter/X @PeterDellaPenna)
 
Isani Vaghela’s impressive run with the bat in Rwanda continued on Monday afternoon as she picked up her third consecutive Player of the Match award for her second half-century in the space of three matches to help pace USA’s lineup in a 72-run win over Vanuatu at the ICC Women’s Challenge Trophy. Vaghela made 54 off 41 balls during a 110-run second-wicket partnership alongside Chetna Pagydyala, who also made 54 in USA’s total of 162 for 4 before they restricted Vanuatu to 90 for 8 in reply. 
 
USA won the toss and chose to bat first with one change to the lineup from Sunday’s win over Nepal as Suhani Thadani came in for Jivana Aras. USA lost a wicket four balls into play as Sainavi Kambalapalli was late on a sweep against Vanessa Vira and given lbw for a duck. 
 
From then on, it was mostly one-way traffic for USA. Vaghela joined Pagydyala and got off the mark in the second over slicing a boundary through the off side, then did it again with a cut in the fourth over. Pagydyala got her first boundary in the fifth over, then followed it with two more in a 16-run sixth over off Vanuatu captain Rachel Andrew. Vaghela lofted a six off Nasimani Navaika past the long-off rope in the seventh before doing it again over long-on against Susan Stephen during a 16-run seventh over. 
 
Vaghela’s third six came off a misjudged chance in the 12^th over when she lofted a drive toward long-on off Navaika that resulted in the fielder coming in off the rope as it landed just beyond for a maximum. Pagydyala stroked a four off Navaika to start off the 14^th over which brought up the century partnership between the two before Vaghela slapped a boundary through cover to bring up her half-century off 37 balls. The partnership ended six short of tying the highest stand in USA Women’s T20I history when Vaghela heaved Natalia Kakor to deep midwicket where Vira took a simple catch to make it 110 for 2 in the 15^th. 
 
Pagydyala brought up her half-century off 45 balls in the 16^th courtesy of a misfield at square leg. She hit Vira for a boundary off the second ball of the 17^th to move to 54 before getting out one ball later, driving Vira in the air to long-off to make it 125 for 3. Pooja Ganesh and Gargi Bhogle then teamed to add 39 off the final 20 balls of the innings, including a three-ball sequence in the 19^th in which Bhogle drove a pair of boundaries over extra cover before flicking a full toss over midwicket for six to spoil Vira’s figures. After seven runs off the first five balls of the final over, Ganesh was dismissed for 19 off the last ball of the innings after she walked across her stumps trying to flick over fine leg and was bowled behind her legs by Andrew. Bhogle ended unbeaten on 24 off 12 balls. 
 
Vira began the day with a wicket maiden before leaking 17 runs off her final over to finish with 2 for 25 off four. Kakor took 1 for 28 off four while Andrew returned 1 for 36 off her four. Stephen was Vanuatu’s least effective bowler, conceding 0 for 34 off three. 
 
Vanuatu started off their chase with a bang as Valenta Langiatu hit Maahi Madhavan for two fours in the opening over. But Lekha Shetty struck back for USA in the second, getting Stephen for 4 after winning an lbw appeal on a failed swipe across the line to make it 12 for 1. Shetty took her second in the fourth when a half-volley was drilled hard but straight to Aditi Chudasama at head height for a sharp catch for 4 to make it 22 for 2. Vanuatu’s chances of chasing down the target were dented further in the fifth when Selina Solman suffered a leg strain while stretching for a single and subsequently had to retire hurt in the sixth over with the score at 31 for 2. 
 
Langiatu fell in the seventh over off Kambalapalli when a loopy legbreak was sliced to Vaghela at backward point to make it 38 for 3. Kambalapalli should have taken a second wicket in the 10^th but a heave to deep midwicket by Navaika on 2 was dropped on a diving effort by Madhavan. Vanuatu’s longest partnership of the match went for 26 runs culminating in a six hit over midwicket by Gillian Chilia off Ritu Singh in the 13^th. But Singh struck back two balls later as another attempted heave was mistimed and looped gently to Chudasama in the ring at midwicket for 17 to make it 64 for 4. 
 
Solman returned at the fall of the fourth wicket to resume her innings, but she could only last another five balls before backing away to Shetty and missing a weak drive to be bowled for 3 making it 65 for 5. Taranum Chopra removed Melissa Fare next for 2, bowled playing a flat-footed hack across the line to make it 76 for 6 in 17 overs. 
 
Madhavan returned in the 19^th for the first time since taking the new ball dislodged the stubborn Navaika for 20 off 29 balls as a heave to deep midwicket was held calmly by Kambalapalli to make it 79 for 7. Shetty then took the ball one more time for the 20^th in search of a maiden five-wicket haul. She bowled Anna Griffin for 2 prodding down the wrong line to start the over for her fourth wicket of the day, but was unable to claim a fifth off the remainder of the over as Kakor hit a boundary on the final ball of play to create the final margin. 
 
Shetty’s 4 for 16 was still good enough to be a career-best, and also made her the ninth USA Women’s bowler to take a four-wicket haul in T20Is. Madhavan extended her team lead to nine wickets in the tournament with her figures of 1 for 14. Kambalapalli ended with 1 for 10 in four overs, with one chance dropped and another strong appeal for a catch off a possible gloved chance given not out. Singh ended with 1 for 14 off her four while Chopra returned 1 for 12 off three. Chudasama and Thadani conceded 0 for 12 off two overs and one over respectively. 
 
In the day’s other match, Rwanda chased down a target of 124 with three balls to spare to beat Italy by six wickets. The pair of results mean that USA maintain a two-point lead on 10 points at the top of the table ahead of Rwanda’s eight. Italy and Nepal both sit on four points while Vanuatu has two points after six matches. 
 
USA has two days off before returning to action on Thursday against Italy and then finishes off their tournament slate on Friday against Rwanda. Wins in both matches would guarantee the tournament title for USA as would a win over Rwanda regardless of USA’s result against Italy. If USA beats Italy but loses to Rwanda, combined with a Rwanda win over Nepal in their other remaining match, then the tournament winner would be decided on the net run rate tiebreaker. USA currently has a +2.211 advantage over Rwanda on the tiebreaker.