Team India overcomes Australia in ICC Women's T20 World Cup
The Indian women's cricket team overcame defending champions Australia in the opening encounter of the ICC World T20 on Friday in Sydney. With this win, India picked up two crucial points in Group A. India managed 132/4 in 20 overs. Deepti Sharma (49*) shined. In reply, Australia (115/10) were rattled by leg-spinner Poonam Yadav. Here are further details.
Sent into bat first, India got off to a flier with Shafali Verma hitting a brisk 29. India lost two wickets in the form of Smriti Mandhana (10) and Verma. The score was 43/2. Soon it became 47/3 after Harmanpreet Kaur (2) departed. Jemimah Rodrigues and Deepti added a 53-run stand for the fourth wicket. Deepti's innings helped India post 132.
Australia saw Alyssa Healy (51) take command. The opening batswoman smashed six fours and a six. However, Australia kept losing wickets at the other end. Poonam Yadav (4/19) was terrific after claiming four scalps and that hurt the Aussies. She mixed things well and was also on the verge of a World T20 hat-trick. Ashleigh Gardner offered courage, however, it wasn't enough.
Healy now has 1,875 career T20I runs. This was her 10th career T20I fifty. Elysse Perry registered her fourth career T20I duck. India's star all-rounder Deepti notched her highest T20I score. Perry (1/15) has raced to 114 career T20I scalps and 37 in the ICC Women's T20 World Cup.
Poonam now has 89 career T20I wickets in 63 matches. She is now the joint-sixth highest wicket-taker in T20Is alongside Pakistan's Sana Mir. This was Poonam's third four-wicket haul in the format. The champion spinner now has 22 scalps in the ICC Women's T20 World Cup. She is now the seventh-highest wicket-taker in the tournament. Poonam registered her second-best figures in the competition.
