The Indian women's team are knocking on the doors of the semifinals of the ICC Women's World Cup after a 16 run win over Sri Lanka. Deepti Sharma starred with the bat for India and her 100 run partnership with Mithali Raj helped India post 232 on the board.
India's openers failed but the middle order helped them post a winning total. Jhulan Goswami and Poonam Yadav were right on the money and took two wickets each. On that note, here are five things India did right in their victory against Sri Lanka at Derby:
#5 Jhulan Goswami's economical start
After failing to bowl for extensive periods against Pakistan, India's premier fast bowler Jhulan Goswami produced the goods against Sri Lanka. Goswami was bang on target against right from the first over. She bowled six overs in her first spell and conceded less than 3 runs per over.
She also picked up the first wicket of the Lankan innings when she dismissed the dangerous Hasini Perera in the powerplay. Goswami then took the wicket of Shashikala Siriwardane who was looking to take the game away from the Indians.
#4 Veda Krishnamurthy's surge at the end
India were struggling to score quickly in the middle overs despite having two set batsmen in the middle. And both, Raj and Sharma, were dismissed in two balls which brought Veda Krishnamurthy to the middle. The batter was playing in her first game in the World Cup, roped in in place of Mona Meshram.
Krishnamurthy started slowly but picked up her scoring with five overs to go. She smashed four boundaries in her stay and scored at a rate close to 100. It was her quickfire innings in the end which propelled India to a challenging total.
#3 Middle overs domination
India's spinners have been sensational so far in the tournament and they again proved to be decisive against the Lankans. After the first powerplay, Chamari Atapattu was slowly finding her groove and hitting the bowlers for boundaries. Her wicket though turned the game and brought Sri Lanka's inning to a standstill.
The trio of Hansini, Siriwardane and Manodara got off to agonisingly slow starts which gave India the upper hand in the game. Ekta Bisht, Poonam Yadav, Deepti Sharma and Harmanpreet Kaur bowled in tandem and kept the scoring rate under check. Between the 20th and the 40th over, Sri Lanka scored at a rate of just 2 per over which meant that the total was well out of reach at the end.
#2 Partnership between Mithali Raj and Deepti Sharma
India yet again failed to register a solid opening partnership as Smriti Mandhana fell cheaply to spin early on. Punam Raut soon followed suit and it was up to the experienced Mithali Raj and the rookie Deepti Sharma to resurrect the Indian batting. The partnership was a bit on the slower side but it turned out to be a match-winning one in the end.
The duo took few risks, with the captain taking her time and giving the strike to Sharma as often as possible. The 19-year-old played the aerial shots to perfection and scored a well deserved 78. Raj also completed her half century soon after and her knock of 53 means that she is now 21 runs short of topping the list of ODI run getters.
#1 Poonam Yadav shines with the ball
The leg-spinner was brought on against the experienced Chamari Atapattu to stop the flow of runs. And Yadav did not disappoint. The leg-spinner castled Atapattu early in her spell, dashing Sri Lankan fans’ hopes. She also took the wicket of opener Nipuni Hansika and finished with miserly figures of 10-1-23-2.
The way she tossed the ball up against Atapattu was heartening to see. Yadav mixed up her deliveries brilliantly, with the Lankan batters failing to judge her wrist movements. Her wrong’uns bamboozled the Lankans on more than one occasion. Yadav bowled eight overs on the trot and did not give the batters a chance to hit her with the turn.
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