India Women continued their surge in the Women’s T20 World Cup in Australia as they beat Bangladesh Women by 18 wickets to top the group table. Although the batting floundered in bits and pieces, Poonam Yadav and the bowlers stepped up to sink Bangladesh. Here we take a look at some takeaways for team India from the game.
Veda’s form
Veda Krishnamurthy has long been criticised for not stepping up in the shortest format of the game in her assigned role. Her day started awry as she ran out a well-set Deepti Sharma but she turned it around with a slew of sweep shots against the spinners. The innings was going nowhere after the middle-order crumble and Veda gave it some impetus to help India post a challenging total.
Not all spin
India’s spinners have dominated headlines since the warm up games. From the meticulous Deepti Sharma to the fearless Rajeshwari Gayakwad and the immaculate Poonam Yadav, India have an array of spinners to choke the batsmen in the middle overs. However, the game against Bangladesh showed that India’s attack isn’t all spin. Shikha Pandey and Arundhati Reddy stepped up with two wickets apiece, dismissing both the openers and then Reddy grabbed the big wicket of Fargana Hoque for a duck to derail Bangladesh.
The Poonam factor
After two games in the World Cup, it is already evident that Poonam Yadav is India’s biggest weapon. Opposition sides have struggled to hit her flighted, loopy leg breaks and wrong ‘uns. Holding her back till the ninth over has worked for India as the opposition has no way but to attack her. Her x-factor means that India’s plan A will be to contain the opposition early on and attack with Poonam in the middle overs. It, however, remains to be seen if this approach works when India are bowling first.