ICC Women T20 World Cup; Shafali Verma and spinners help India beat Sri Lanka in one-sided match

 

-Anjali Ankad  

 

Facing the first bat and going for a boundary is something only Verma can do. She has been a new-found gem who can open the innings and bring stability from the start. Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandana played their part today as a top-order batting unit though it was for short duration. It did help them to gain the lost confidence through this game.

  

Melbourne, February 29 : Making country proud with the way it has performed, India has won its fourth successive match in the ICC Women T20 World Cup 2020 tournament. Shafali Verma, Radha Yadav with other spinners and dropped catches assisted India to earn victory in the last group stage match against Sri Lanka by 7 wickets with 32 balls remaining here today. 

 

 

Choosing to bat first, Sri Lanka seemed confident since the start. Nevertheless, Deepti Sharma managed putting pressure and dismissed Umesha in the second over itself. But the wicket maiden over by Rajeshwari Gayakwad turned out to be the game-changer in the eighth over when Sri Lanka was 42/1. Afterward, it was all Radha Yadav's (4/23) magic which got India the important wickets of the opponents.

 

Along with her, the other spinners had taken wickets frequently in the middle overs which sucked the momentum of Sri Lanka and they could not settle down. In the death over, Sri Lankan bowler coming at number nine played well adding 25 runs in the scoreboard. India did have chances to make it all-out in the death overs but dropped catches led Sri Lanka to set a target of 113 for India.

 

In India's innings, it was all Verma (47 runs off 34 balls) who once again stepped up for the team and starred in the one-sided match. She was nearly caught twice but luck played in her favor leading her to play big shots further. She once again missed her half-century before getting dismissed but finished a run ahead of Heather Knight who is yet to play her last group stage fixture. The 47-run partnership between Verma and the skipper Harmanpreet Kaur ensured India played a major role which made their innings stable. After the dismissals of Verma and the captain, Jemimah Rodrigues and Deepti Sharma timed the ball and got frequent boundaries helping India with a comfortable win.

 

 

The Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur stating about maintaining the momentum in this event she said, "It's really important to keep the momentum when you are winning games. You really work hard, so you can't afford to lose that momentum. You can't bowl same pace and lengths on these wickets, so you need to keep rotating the bowlers. Today I tried to be positive and got a few boundaries. In the upcoming games I'll try to give my best. Shafali is someone who loves to play big shots, and we don't want to stop her. She should continue doing the same and she should continue enjoying her game."

 

Further displaying her career-best figure, she said while collecting the Player of the Match, "I was just thinking of bowling stump to stump and tried to keep it simple. We did well as a bowling unit. And we need to keep this momentum going forward. Yeah, she's (Poonam) a legend." India finishing early the group stage games at the top in Group A will be playing the semi-final match on 5th March in Sydney.