U-19 Women’s WC: India Beat England By 7 Wickets In Final; First ICC Title In Women's Cricket For The Nation

U-19 Women’s WC: India finished off their chase of 69 with 36 balls to go.

U-19 Women’s WC: India finishing off their chase of 69 with 36 balls to go.

Source : Twitter/@BCCIWomen

India defeated England by 7 wickets in the ICC Women's U19 T20 World Cup final in  Potchefstroom on Sunday to clinch the nation's first ICC title in women's cricket. While the senior women's team are yet to win a world tournament, the U19 team did so in the inaugural season of the U19 T20 World Cup itself.

Opting to bowl first, the Shafali Verma led side bowled England out for 68. While Titas Sadhu, Archana Devi and Parshavi Chopra bagged 2 wickets each, Mannat Kashyap, Shafali Verma and Mannat Kashyap scalped a wicket each. Apart from their clinical bowling display, the team was superb on the field overall, affecting a run out as well as taking a few splendid catched with the wicketkeeper also getting to affect a stumping.

In response, despite losing captain Shafali and leading run-scorer Shweta Sehrawat early, the Women in Blue reached their target with 36 balls to spare. Just before the finish line, the Women in Blue did lose Gongadi Trisha but by that time India were on course to register the win which they did in the next over itself with Soumya Tiwari hitting the winning runs.

Titas Sadhu Gets The Player of The Match in the Final

Sadhu bagged the Player of the Match Award for her performane in the final. She returned with exceptional figures of 2 for 6 in her 4 overs, setting up the stage for a dominating Indian performance in the match. Speaking at the post match press-conference she said that the team had played 2 matches at this venue before and even witnessed the other matches being played here which helped them curate their plans accordingly.

"It's really surreal. Have been looking forward to this day for a long time. We had a plan in our mind, and thankfully we executed what we planned. The spinners backed up really well. We have played 2 matches and watched all the games that happened here, and had a pretty good idea where to bowl," she said.

Parshavi Chopra ended the tournament as the second highest wicket-taker and the team's leading wicket taker with as many as 11 wickets in her kitty. S Sehrawat, meanwhile, finishing as the highest run-getter. But the Player of The Tournament award went to England's captain Grace Scrivens who picked 9 wickets and scored 293 runs in the competition.

The England captain felt that their batting let them down in the final.

"Quite pleased. I never really played abroad, amazing experience and heat is something I had to deal with. Had to adapt to different conditions. We train a lot in the nets and try and put that practice in the middle. We were gutted, our batting let us down. We were so good throughout the tournament going hard at the bowlers, we tried that today but didn't quite come off," she said after the match. 

Earlier India had defeated New Zealand in the first semi-final while England had beaten Australia to set up this clash.