4 matches, 4 wins!
“We live to fight another day. Heads held high, lessons learnt, ready for the biggest spectacle of T20 cricket.”, tweeted Indian women’s T20 cricket team captain, Harmanpreet Kaur 3 days before India’s first T20 2020 match with the host team, Australia. With her and her team’s brilliant performances, India have qualified for the semifinals by winning matches against Australia, Bangladesh, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. India have maintained its top position in group A with 8 points.
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Table of Contents
Highlights of India vs Australia
IND W 132/4
AUS W 115/10
(India won by 17 runs)
Australia’s tight fielding
Australian captain won the toss and opted to bowl first. Molly Strano dropped Smriti Mandhana on 1 for which the Australian team had to pay with two four’s. Smriti and Shafali Verma both fall soon after an explosive start. Jess Jonassen took her second wicket by easily stumping Harmanpreet Kaur. By the efforts of Deepti Sharma and Jemimah Rodrigues, India were able to make 100 runs in 16 overs and finished with 132 in 20 overs.
How India beat Australia in Australia
Australia was calmly chasing the target on the slow Sydney wicket. Alyssa Healy completed her 50 soon. Poonam Yadav gave big wicket to India by removing Healy from her well-set position. Poonam made the day for India by again displacing two in two overs, Haynes stumped out and Perry bowled out! Australia also scored 100 in 16 overs. The deadly combo of Poonam Yadav (4/19) and Shikha Pandey (3/14) turned things around for team India. Beating Australia in Australia that too in T20 World Cup was a big courageous victory for India.
Highlights of India vs Bangladesh
IND W 142/6
BAN W 124/8
(India won by 18 runs)
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India to bat first again in the series
Bangladesh won the toss. They chose to field first. Shafali Verma became cricket star at the age of 16 years by quick-firing 39 runs in mere 17 balls with 4 sixes and 2 fours in the match played against Bangladesh. She is now the youngest to receive the Player of the Match Award in the T20 World Cup. Jemimah Rodrigues’ persistence made India reach a safe score.
The tigresses failed to click
Bangladesh lose their first wicket soon while batting. N. Sultana and M. Khatun have put some runs on Bangladesh’s scorecard but that wasn’t enough to cross India’s score. Poonam Yadav’s spell of taking three wickets by giving only 18 runs helped Indian women’s team to win by 18 runs against Bangladesh.
IND vs NZ women’s T20 WC match details
IND W 133/8
NZ W 130/6
(India won by 3 runs)
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Verma trending up
India’s performances till the end in the thriller match have won them plenty of fans in the Junction Oval Stadium, Australia. Here again, the opponent team won the toss, chose to bowl first, Shefali Verma the sensation again shined with her explosive batting and Harmanpreet Kaur again disappointed cricket fans by returning to Pavillion before making a satisfying score. Verma got two Player of the Match Awards in two games.
Sensation till the last ball
Radha Yadav gave excellent overall performance by scoring 14 off 9 with the bat, 1/25 with the ball and 2 catches in the field. Also, never ever before this inning in seven T20 matches, Sophie Devine has been made to walk into Pavillion for less than 50. This gave an advantage to India. No one could predict until the end about the winning team. The girls won thousands of hearts in the Oval Stadium by healthy batting and seamless bowling. India became the first team to qualify for T20 World Cup semi-finals.
India won against Sri Lanka too
SLW W 113/9
IND W 116/3 (14.4/20 ov)
(India won by 7 wickets)
India had already qualified for their seat in semi-finals. This match was a no-pressure match for India. Sri Lankans were already out of semis by losing both their previous matches against New Zealand (by 7 wickets) and Australia (by 5 wickets).
“I’m proud of my performances, but I want to improve day by day.” said Sri Lankan captain Chamari Athapaththu.
Low target by Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka chose to bat first on winning the toss. They were able to score 35/1 in first 6 overs in spite of taking the advantage of the powerplay. However, Athapaththu became the first Sri Lankan woman to reach a score of 500 in the T20 World Cup. Radha Yadav shined with her career-best figures of taking four wickets by giving only 23 runs. The excellent bowling performance by Indian team stopped the opponents at 113/9.
Easy victory
Shafali Verma gave big shots from the first ball and collected 47 runs for India. Excellent performance of team India maintained them on the top of group A by taking a lead of 8 points taking 7 wickets with 32 balls remaining in this match.
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Statistics
Shafali Verma scored 161 runs with an average of 40 runs in 4 matches. Also, she is the player with most sixes under her name. Poonam Yadav got 9 wickets in the matches with the economy of 5.56. After she is Shikha Pandey with 7 wickets with the economy of 5.30.
Semi-finals
Unbeaten India have sealed their semi-final berth. Fans are now waiting for the clash between Australia and New Zealand on Monday to enter into semis. We all hope that India will play its best in semi-finals to reach the final and bring the world cup home.
