Women's U-19 World Cup: Shweta, Shafali power India to big win
India’s massive 122-run win against UAE played in Benoni shows the batting heft the team possesses.
The in-form opening duo Shweta Sehrawat and Shafali Verma mauled the hapless UAE bowlers to star in India’s massive 122-run win in a match played in Benoni during the ongoing ICC Women’s Under-19 T20 World Cup showing the batting heft the team possesses.
While Shafali just needed 34 balls to hit 78 runs, Shweta smashed an unbeaten 74 runs off 49 balls to enable India women to amass 219/3 batting first. In reply, the inexperienced UAE team could only muster 97/5 in 20 overs.
The India openers did not shy away from playing their shots and swatted 111 runs for the opening wicket in 8.3 overs. Captain Shafali who has already played 21 ODIs and 51 T20Is for the senior India side showed her power-hitting prowess and hit four sixes and 12 boundaries to give India an ideal platform. It was medium-pacer Indhuja Nandakumar who provided UAE with relief as she bagged Shafali’s wicket.
But Shweta, who hails from Delhi, kept scoring at a quick pace to keep the pressure on UAE. Richa Ghosh, who was dropped thrice during her innings, propped India up by scoring 49 runs off 29 balls. She smashed two sixes and five hits to the fence during the course of her knock before being dismissed by Mahika Gaur.
Going past the 200-run mark would have given confidence to the Indian team, who played low-scoring matches against SA in the T20I series held ahead of the World Cup.
The writing was on the wall for UAE while chasing the daunting total. The Indian bowlers turned in an improved performance as compared to the game against SA. For UAE, Mahika was the highest scorer with 26 off 26 balls while Lavanya Keny made 24. Other than these two, UAE batters never really got going. Mohammed Shabnam, Titas Sadhu, Mannat Kashyap and spinner Parshavi Chopra took one wicket each for India. India will be taking on Scotland in their next game on January 18.