All-rounder Deepti Sharma entered the record books on Tuesday after she bowled three maidens during her four-over spell in the first T20I of the series against South Africa women’s team. She registered sensational figures of 4 for 8 and, thus, helped her team to defend a paltry total of 130 runs.
It was only on her 19th delivery that the South African batters managed to score a run off her bowling. Two of these overs were wicket maidens with the scalps coming in the 9th and 14th overs of the South African inning.
Earlier it was skipper Harmanpreet Kaur’s 43 that helped India to add some sort of respectability to their total. South Africa were never in the chase even though Mignon du Preez kept the chase going with a fighting fifty.
Other Indian bowlers also supported Deepti well as Poonam Yadav, Radha Yadav and Shikha Pandey picked up two wickets each. Harmanpreet also chipped in with a wicket.
“I was nervous at the halfway stage but we knew that we’d have something for the bowlers. They did a great job,” Harmanpreet said after the match.
“We bowled how I had planned. Got help from the wicket too. The plan was to bowl wicket to wicket and it was turning, so I pitched it up too,” she said.