ICC Women's T20 WC: Shafali Explosive Strokeplay, Poonam's Spin Magic Spearheaded India's March To Maiden Finals

An unbeaten 4-match winning streak in the Group stage which was headlined by impressive wins over defending champions Australia and hot favourites New Zealand, ensured the team a well deserved place in the semifinals.

India's campaign with the willow in the tournament has been headlined by their teen batting sensation Shafali Verma.

New Delhi: It has been a fairy-tale journey for Harmanpreet Kaur-led Indian team who scripted history by making it to their maiden finals at the ongoing ICC Women's T20 World Cup in Australia. Dubbed as one of the pre-tournament favourites, the Indian women's team has lived up to their billing by making it all the way to the summit clash and going one better than their previous best effort of reaching the semifinals in the last edition (2018) of the showpiece event . An unbeaten 4-match winning streak in the Group stage which was headlined by impressive wins over defending champions Australia and hot favourites New Zealand, ensured the team a well deserved place in the semifinals. Drawn against their age-old nemesis England in the last-four stage, lady luck was on Team India's side on a rain abandoned semi-final at Sydney, which saw them advancing to the title clash owing to a superior record in the group stage. India's undefeated march to the grand finale of the ICC Women's T20 World Cup has certainly not been a walk in the park by any means. Clubbed in a 5-team Group alongside two strong title favourites in hosts Australia and New Zealand, the sub continent powerhouse earned a place in the mega finals against Australia by forging some hard fought wins over formidable opponents.

Indian Women Team's  Road To The Finals 

Group A Fixtures

(Results ) Beat Australia By 17 Runs

Beat Bangladesh By 18 Runs

Beat New Zealand By 3 Runs

Beat Sri Lanka By  7 Wickets

Semifinal 

vs England - Match Abandoned Due To Rain 

 

India qualify for the final by virtue of superior record in Group fixtures / finishing higher on the points table (Rule Laid Down In Tournament)

*India - Group A Winner

*England - Group B Runner-up

Shafali Verma Headlines India's Batting Exploits India's campaign with the willow in the tournament has been headlined by their teen batting sensation Shafali Verma's explosive starts up the order. The 16-year old belligerent stroke-maker was instrumental in providing the opening salvo and helping the team post challenging totals. Quick-fire knocks all through the group fixtures made her the team's top scorer with an impressive 161-run tally.

Verma has been more of a lone warrior in an otherwise lacklustre batting performance by her more experienced and noteworthy exponents with the willow in  Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur and Veda Krishnamurthy. Besides Verma's stellar showing, Jemimah Rodrigues (85 runs), Deepti Sharma (83 runs) and stumper Tanya Bhatia chipped in with a few handy knocks in India's perfect group assignment. Meanwhile, wicket-keeper Tanya has been electrifying with her clinical glovework behind the stumps.

Poonam Yadav-led Spin Attack Has Been India's Lethal Weapon In Bowling Armoury Amid a pretty tepid and lop-sided batting performance, it has been the potent Indian bowling unit which proved to be the real game changer in India's successful road to the finals. India had to carve out wins from precarious situations and it was their bowlers who came to the party with some match winning spells. Spin was always their cutting edge weapon and it came to the fore with tweakers casting a web around the not so adept spin playing Aussies and Kiwis.

With 9 wickets in her kitty and topping the wicket-taking charts, Poonam Yadav has undoubtedly been the bowling spearhead. The leg break bowler had good company in the form of tweakers Radha Yadav and Rajeshwari Gayakwad, both of whom were among the wickets by chipping in with five wickets each.

With the spinners ruling the roost, seamer Shikha Pandey played her part with the new ball making crucial breakthroughs and bagging 7 wickets in the process. In a nutshell, the bowling effort unlike the batting campaign has not been dotted with individual brilliance and been more of a collective effort. With young guns in Shafali Verma, Radha Yadav and Tanya Bhatia coming out as show stoppers  in India's flawless group campaign, India would be hoping that their experienced campaigners in Harmanpreet Kaur,Smriti Mandhana and Veda Krishnamurthy really step up their  game and come to the fore in perhaps Indian women cricket history's biggest ever match, the ICC Women's T20 World Cup grand finale against Australia at the MCG on Sunday.