After scraping together what looked like a below-par total of 132, the leg-spin of Poonam Yadav caused chaos at the Showground Stadium, bamboozling the hosts and dragging Harmanpreet Kaur's team to a stunning victory
India upset Australia in the first game of the T20 World Cup thanks to a remarkable bowling display in Sydney.
After scraping together what looked like a below-par total of 132, the leg-spin of Poonam Yadav caused chaos at the Showground Stadium. Slow and loopy, unafraid of tossing the ball well above the eyeline, she had Alyssa Healy caught and bowled the ball after being hit over long-on for six. From then on, her googly took over.
She enticed Rachael Haynes to skip past one delivery, before Ellyse Perry – so often a calmer of nerves in the Australian dressing room – was bowled through the gate one ball later. Facing up to a hat-trick ball, Jess Jonassen edged behind, only for wicketkeeper Taniya Bhatia to drop a tough opportunity and a moment of World Cup history.
Yadav would not have to wait long for another chance, though, with Bhatia this time clinging onto another false shot from Jonassen. It made for remarkable drama in front of a 13,432-strong crowd – a record audience for women’s cricket in Australia.
Earlier on, India had dominated the initial stages of proceedings before losing their way. It seemed as though the Meg Lanning’s hosts had taken control.
The opening exchanges had provided a reminder of the burgeoning strength in depth at the top of the women’s game nowadays. Shafali Verma, just 16 years of age, might just become the lasting image of this tournament. – a generational talent. India were 40 without loss after just 24 balls, with Verma the aggressor.
Megan Schutt, the leading T20I bowler in world cricket, was taken for 16 in her first over and went wicketless for the first time in 23 T20Is, while Verma check-drove Molly Strano over extra cover for six as if simply to confirm her outrageous potential. There was more than a hint of Virender Sehwag in the way in which she went about her work, remaining legside of the ball and hitting strongly through the offside.
Strano was picked after dominating Verma in a recent series between Australia A and India A; the off-spinner had not even been in the Australian squad until Tayla Vlaeminck suffered a stress fracture of her foot on the eve of the competition.
Yet, after Smriti Mandhana was trapped in front by Jess Jonassen and Verma soon followed, India’s early momentum subsided. It was, in a sense, typical of the makeup of this Indian side; a huge reliance on their top four makes them both dangerous and vulnerable. And when Harmanpreet Kaur ran past a delivery from Jonassen to be stumped, 40 without loss after four overs had become 63 for 3 at the halfway mark.
A sensible partnership followed between Jemimah Rodrigues (26) and Deepti Sharma (49*), taking India to three figures, before a late rally propelled Kaur’s side to 132 for 4.
Initially, it seemed as though that total would be insufficient. Alyssa Healy, without a double-figure score in six T20Is in 2020, made a quickfire half century as she returned to form. At 67 for 2 after nine overs, it seemed as though Australia would sneak over the line. But after she fell through Yadav’s intervention, a procession of Australian batsmen followed – a remarkable performance that has given this tournament a dramatic start.
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