Birmingham 8th August : The captain’s strike of Harmanpreet Kaur and some terrific bowling and fielding performance weren’t enough for India to secure the gold medal in 2022 Commonwealth Games at Edgbaston on Sunday.Harmanpreet scored 65 off 43 balls and was part of a 96-run stand at the third wicket with Jemimah Rodrigues. However, the incapacity of recovering from a flood of wickets by Ashleigh Gardner and Megan Schutt meant India clinched the silver medal in their first appearance in the multi-nation tournament and lost by nine wickets, which is the exact same margin they defeated in their 2017 ODI World Cup final to England at Lord’s.
Shafali Verma opened by slamming Megan Schutt for a brace of boundaries in the first 12 runs of the over.
However, in the following over, Smriti Mandhana’s slip caused her to fall, as Darcie Brown smashed her leg-stump.Shafali was then thrown off at cover by Ashleigh Gardner right at the beginning of the third over.
However, when she hit the fourth ball she made a mistake and got caught mid-on.
Jemimah Rodrigues and Harmanpreet took their time to settle in before taking three boundaries off Darcie in the final over of powerplay.
While Jemimah had the space to slice through cover-point Harmanpreet was able to pull over mid-wicket before hit a drive down one knee to cut through the cover.
Jemimah continues to amaze with her stunning off-side drives, while Harmanpreet paddled for four and hit an impressive six on the track to keep India in the game in the race.Harmanpreet’s love affair with leg-side boundaries continued as she moved, swiped and hit her fifty in 34 balls with a flick through the mid-wicket.
After reaching her fifty Harmanpreet struck Alana to score two boundaries in the leg-side.
Jemimah increased the ante with an elongated slog off Megan but the pacer had the final smile on the third ball, as she removed the right-hander’s leg stump.
India were thrown into deep trouble in the 16th over when Pooja Vastrakar was snared to mid-wicket deep off Ashleigh Harmanpreet immediately after the edge of an intentional scoop was caught by Alyssa Healy who dived into her right.
After that, despite being close to neck and neck, India couldn’t get over the line and left Harmanpreet & Co heartbroken, yet again, losing their final eight wickets, resulting in 34 runs.
Then, a stunning fightback by the Indian bowlers in the final five overs saw Australia finished with 161-8.
In addition to the 74-run stand between captain Meg Lanning and captain Beth Beth and captain Meg Lanning, Australia wasn’t allowed to break the ice because India allowed just 36 runs in the final five overs.They also took five scalps.
India were awe-inspiring in the field, putting in tight stops, taking stunning captures and making fantastic run-outs.As for the ball Renuka Thakur and Sneh Rana each took two wickets as Deepti Sharma and Radha Yadav took one wicket each.
Renuka and Meghna Singh put pressure on Australia as nine runs were scored in the initial two overs with the odd four run for Alyssa.This was a huge win for India after a last-minute review revealed Alyssa was lbw trapped by an inswinger by Renuka when she attempted to take an eagle across the boundary in the third over.
Beth started to get going with boundaries via drive and flick, while Meg hit a drive off-side before hitting an easy six over long-off, as Australia hit 39-1 in power-play.Beth and Meg continued to alternate strike and hit boundaries occasionally before they scored 17 runs from Harmanpreet’s opening turn, with the Australia skipper hitting three fours off her Indian counterpart.
However, her promising run was scuttled by Radha flashing an underarm shot that was sharp towards the non-striker’s side on Beth throwing the ball back to bowler, and catching Meg just inches away of her own crease.Tahlia McGrath, who was being positive for Covid-19, was thrown off the field in a flurry after Radha took a full length dive towards her left the backward point to make a stunning capture off Deepti.
Ashleigh had smashed some limits, one of which was a massive six-over the long-on of Radha.
However, Sneh fooled her with loop and flight to be easily beaten by Taniyaa Bhatia.
Beth made it fifty by slamming an enticing full toss over long-off.However, India continued to pick up scalps in the same way Grace Harris miscued to mid-on off Renuka.
In the next one, Beth tried to clear long-on off Sneh.But Deepti reversed her course from mid-on and extended her right arm while she was losing her balance to complete a blinder using one hand.
India’s remarkable fielding display continued as Meghna made a quick catch at mid-wicket that sent Alana King back , and Jess Jonassen was caught short of her crease by the direct hit of Smriti.161-8 is enough for Australia to maintain their title-winning streak.
Brief Scores: Australia 161-8 in 20 overs (Beth Mooney 61, Meg Lanning 36; Renuka Singh 2-25, Sneh Rana 2-38) beat India 150 in all in 19.3 overs (Harmanpreet Kaur 65, Jemimah Rodrigues 33; Ashleigh Gardner 3-16, Megan Schutt 2-27) by nine runs
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