India’s best T20I bowler Poonam Yadav shimmered in the first game of Women’s T20 World Cup (WC) against Australia. The leg-spinner dismantled Aussie batting line-up and ended up picking four wickets to help her side win the contest by 17 runs.
A game-changing spell by @poonam_yadav24 turned this contest on its head.
The best figures by an overseas spinner in a women's T20I played in Australia!#T20WorldCup | #AUSvIND | #TeamIndia pic.twitter.com/kuPVFFGwXQ
— T20 World Cup (@T20WorldCup) February 21, 2020
#TeamIndia begin the #T20WorldCup campaign with a win over Australia 🇮🇳💪 #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/JKcPaGUibf
— BCCI Women (@BCCIWomen) February 21, 2020
The Meg Lanning-led side restricted the Indians to 132 before starting their chase. Openers Alyssa Healy and Beth Mooney added 32 runs before Shikha Pandey drew the first blood by scalping the wicket of the latter, who went out for just six runs.
A few runs later, skipper Lanning followed Mooney, with the Australian score at 55-2. Healy, on the other hand, kept on adding runs and reached her fifty. Just as she was looking settled, India’s star bowler Poonam caught and bowled the Aussie opener.
Healy’s wicket opened the flood gates, and Australia kept on losing wickets at regular intervals, and in the end, they were bundled out for 115 with one ball to spare.
Earlier, India’s middle-order batter Deepti Sharma shined in the first game of the multilateral tournament in Sydney on Friday. She played a vital unbeaten knock of 49 to help her side post a competitive score.
Then the pair of Jemimah Rodrigues and Deepti joined hands and added a 53-run stand to take their team out of hot waters. However, when the score reached 100, Jemimah was adjudged leg-before. Deepti, on the other hand, kept on adding runs and took her side to 132-4 in 20 overs.
Before that, opener Shefali Verma took India to a flyer as the ‘Women in Blue’ were 40-0 in just four overs, but then came a twist in the tale as both the openers Shefali and Smriti Mandhana got dismissed with only 43 on the board. To add to Indian batting woes, Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur got stumped, and all of a sudden, Team India were 47-3.
For the Aussies, their most experienced bowler Jess Jonassen impressed yet again. She took two important wickets of Mandhana and Kaur to take down the opposition. All-rounder duo of Delissa Kimmince and Ellyse Perry took one wicket each.
For her incredible performance, Poonam was rewarded with the ‘Player of the Match’ award.
Player of the Match on comeback for Poonam Yadav!
Having missed all of the tri-series with an injury, you can see what this means to her 🙌 #T20WorldCup | #AUSvIND | #TeamIndia pic.twitter.com/Tf0XQ5sjRv
— T20 World Cup (@T20WorldCup) February 21, 2020
👍 from #TeamIndia#AUSvIND | #T20WorldCup pic.twitter.com/E22blxRNtm
— T20 World Cup (@T20WorldCup) February 21, 2020
