Poonam Yadav’s leg-spinning masterclass saw India complete an unlikely turnaround to open the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020 in style with a pulsating victory over Australia.
The defending champions looked to be cruising in their chase of 133 but four wickets for six runs from Yadav saw the game flip on its head at the Sydney Showground.
Also read – T20 World Cup: How Deepti Sharma, Poonam Yadav scripted India’s scintillating win against Australia
Alyssa Healy had returned to form with a timely 51 but her teammates struggled around her, Ashleigh Gardner (34) the only other batter into double figures.
Shafali Verma’s opening burst had set India on their way with the bat while Deepti Sharma’s career-best 49 not out steered them to 132/4, a total that eventually proved defendable.
After the match, India captain Harmanpreet Kaur said: “We believed in our team, we have very good spinners who can always turn the game for us. We were discussing between innings, sometimes when a team gets partnerships you can get one wicket and turn the game for you. Poonam did a great job for us, credit goes to our bowlers – they trusted themselves and won the game for us.”
Here are the match highlights:
(With inputs from ICC Media Zone)