Women’s T20 World Cup: India defeats Australia

The women’s cricket team has started off their T20 World Cup on a winning note. India faced the hosts Australia in the first battle and the women in blue took revenge for the loss in tri-series final last week.

Team India was asked to bat first by Australia. Openers Smriti Mandanna and Shafali Verma made a terrific start by scoring 40 runs in the first four overs. But Smriti’s wicket slowed the scoreboard and women’s team kept losing wickets. Allrounder Deepti Sharma came to the rescue and scored an unbeaten 49 runs and India posted a total of 132 runs.

Chasing the total, Australia too made a good start. Indian pacers were hammered but India bounced back. Spinners Shikha Pandey and Poonam Yadav broke the Aussie middle order. Especially Poonam bowled a brilliant spell and she took four wickets for just 19 runs. India bowled out Australia for 115 runs and won by 17 runs.

Poonam Yadav was rewarded with ‘Player of the Match’ award. India will next play Bangladesh on February 24th.