Womens T20 World Cup: India Upset the defending champions, Australia in tournament opener

The start to the Women’s T20 World Cup has been fantastic for the India’s Women’s team as they beat the defending champions in the opening match. Batting first, team India put an average score of 132 runs in 20 overs. The big stars of Indian team such as Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana failed to score big in the inaugural match of the World Cup 2020. Chasing a short score, Australia got off to a good start with opener Alyssa Healy making a 35-ball 51 zipped with six boundaries and a six to anchor the chase for the defending champions.

However, Indian spinners Poonam Yadav and Shikha Pandey triggered a collapse as Australia suddenly slipped to 82/6. Poonam (4/19) scalped four wickets, back to back in two successive deliveries of the 12th over to hamper the backbone of Australia’s chase. The spinners in middle over really made it difficult to let Australia score on the slow track which was suited to the spinners more than the pacers. As a result, the Indian spinners snapped a total of 7 wickets (Yadav – 4 and Pandey – 3) in the opening match to make a resounding start of the Women’s T20 World Cup.

Overall the women’s team performed collectively to register their first win of the tournament. The Indian wicket-keeper Taniya Bhatia also cheeped in with two fabulous catches behind the stumps and two impressive stumping of the Australian women’s team.

Here is how people rooted for India’s thumping win over the defending champions –

Team India will be riding high with the win over the Aussies but to win the T20 World Cup, they will need to keep getting such performance from the team in order to be the ultimate champion. The Women’s team will the face the neighboring country Bangladesh on February 24^th at Perth.  

Blog Image Source: IndiaToday