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Sadhu, Shafali and Mandhana dismantle Australia with ease
Friday evening was the story of one young fast bowler and two experienced openers who helped India cruise to a 1-0 series lead in Navi Mumbai against Australia. It was a dominant performance led by Titas Sadhu’s sensational four-wicket haul that skittled Australia for 141 before Shafali Verma and Smirti Mandhana made the chase look easy.
Sadhu picked three wickets in the powerplay to run through the visitors, as they lost four wickets for five runs. Australia fought back through Phoebe Litchfield and Ellyse Perry, but after Amanjot Kaur broke that stand in the 15th over, another collapse followed.
Shafali and Mandhana then bossed the Australia bowlers with assured half-centuries that helped seal a nine-wicket win with 14 balls remaining.
After India opted to bowl at the toss, Renuka Singh Thakur bowled a tight first over. But Beth Mooney turned aggressor, and Australia moved to 26 for no loss in three overs. That is when Sadhu, a late addition to the XI, was introduced.
Bowling a tidy line and length from the start, Sadhu allowed only two runs off her first four balls, including an unsuccessful caught-behind review. But she got her wicket soon after when Mooney miscued a skier that Harmanpreet Kaur grabbed backtracking from mid-on. A struggling Alyssa Healy then hit Renuka for four before offering Harmanpreet another catch at mid-off.
Sadhu then tied Tahlia McGrath down, bowling four dots including an edge that fell just short of the slip cordon. With the pressure building, McGrath tried to go inside-out to an outswinger only to miscue it to deep third. In a rare occasion of waywardness, Sadhu welcomed Ashleigh Gardner with a wide, but then drew a leading edge from her taking the catch on the followthrough to complete a near-perfect powerplay performance.
From a position of 33 for 4, Litchfield and Perry then dug in even as Sadhu almost struck again when Richa Ghosh couldn’t grab at a miscued Litchfield reverse slap. The pair took off in the tenth over against Vastrakar, with Litchfield playing a pick-up pull and then going inside-out to cover next ball.
Perry completed the over with a majestic pull behind square and the runs kept flowing against Shreyanka Patil and Deepti Sharma too. Litchfield, who was in stunning form in the ODIs, then disdainfully hit Amanjot for consecutive sixes. But with the partnership growing dangerous, Amanjot struck back with a slower ball. Litchfield only found mid-off, falling one short of fifty.
When Perry hit another six – and with Grace Harris at the other end – it looked like Australia wouldn’t slow down, making the most of their batting depth, but Patil trapped Harris lbw next ball as she missed a reverse sweep.
Just seven runs came off the next two overs before Sadhu returned. Annabel Sutherland lofted her for a six – the only boundary she conceded – before Sadhu got her revenge by having Sutherland caught at mid-off. She became the youngest Indian to pick a four-wicket haul in T20Is and it also made it four catches for Harmanpreet.
Deepti then got Perry and trapped Megan Schutt lbw in a two-wicket over. Patil wrapped up the innings with the tenth wicket to leave India chasing 142. The last four wickets cost only six runs.
With a sub-par target, Australia needed a good start with the ball, but it just didn’t happen as a wayward Darcie Brown gave away two leg-bye fours and another five wides down leg.
With 14 on the board in one over, Shafali drove Schutt through the covers off the first ball she faced. Next over, Mandhana pulled Sutherland for six, before Shafali picked up two more boundaries off Schutt. Shafali hit a straight six off Sutherland in the sixth over too as India raced to 59 for no loss by the end of the powerplay.
With almost no run-rate pressure, Shafali and Mandhana ticked along comfortably. Shafali, who has come under the radar for a drop in form recently and was also left out of the last two ODIs, reached her half-century off 32 balls, after hammering McGrath for six and four.
Mandhana completed a run-a-ball fifty of her own before a sharp catch by McGrath at long-on ended her knock. The 137-run stand saw Shafali hit six fours and three sixes, while Mandhana helped herself to seven fours and a six.
By the time Mandhana fell in the 16th over, India needed only five more and Australia were consigned to only their fourth T20I defeat by nine (or more) wickets.
Brief scores:
India 145 for 1in 17.4 overs (Shafali Verma 64*, Smirti Mandhana 54, Georgia Wareham 1-20) beat Australia 141 in 19.2 overs (Ellyse Perry 37, Phoebe Litchfield 49, Titas Sadhu 4-17, Shreyanka Patil 2-19, Deepti Sharma 2-24, Renuka Singh 1-24, Amanjot Kaur 1-23) by nine wickets
(Cricinfo)
Ireland Women 118/9 in 20 overs (Alana Dalzelle 14, Orla Prendergast 26, Leah Paul 10, Alice Tector 10, Louise Little 26*; Lauren Bell 1-39, Linsey Smith 1-20, Sophie Ecclestone 3-22, Charlie Dean 2-11, Dani Gibson 2-10) lost to England Women 119/6 in 17.3 overs (Dani Wyatt Hodge 16, Nat Sciver-Brunt 48, Heather Knight 26; Aimee Maguire 2-23, Orla Prendergast 2-17) by 4 wickets
Lionel Messi marked his record sixth World Cup appearance with his first hat-trick at a FIFA tournament as Argentina beat Algeria 3-0 to open the defence of their global crown, he also became the joint highest scorer at World Cups with the feat.
The former 38-year-old forward thought he had opened the scoring in the eighth minute in Kansas City on Tuesday when he slotted home from close range, but the offside flag was raised.
The dream start to his record-setting appearance, which will be matched by Cristiano Ronaldo for Portugal against DR Congo on Wednesday, was not to be denied for long though.
A trademark, mazy run was capped by a drive on the edge of the box from that famed left foot. The power too much for Algeria keeper Luca Zidane, son of World Cup winner with France, Zinidine.
Messi doubled his tally on the hour mark with a simple tap in from a rebound off the keeper following a drive from Alexis Mac Allister.
The moment that even a player as decorated as Messi came in the 76th minute when he drilled low past the keeper from just outside the box.
The strike took Messi level with former Germany striker Miroslav Klose on 16 World Cup goals.
His substitution came just three minutes later to a standard ovation, even old maestro seemed disappointed to be removed – and most likely rested for Argentina’s tilt at becoming only the third side to defend a World Cup title.
Algeria – the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations winners – offered little, but were themselves denied an early goal when Fares Chaibi’s ninth minute strike was ruled out for offside.
Messi saw to it that there was no opening game upset to be had tat this edition, having lost their opening game at Qatar 2022 to Saudi Arabia.
Messi, who spent the majority of his club career in Spain with Barcelona before moving to French giants Paris-Saint Germain, plys his trade in US football’s Major League Soccer with Inter Miami.
Jordan and Austria open their account in the group later on Tuesday in San Francisco.
[Aljazeera]
United States sprinter Noah Lyles has set the world’s best-ever time over the rarely-run 150 metres race, clocking 14.67 seconds at the Golden Spike meet in the eastern Czech city of Ostrava.
The 28-year-old Lyles on Tuesday beat the previous best of 14.72 set by Kishane Thompson of Jamaica in Florida in April.
At Ostrava, Lyles beat Sinesipho Dambile of South Africa with 14.78, while Australian teenager Gout Gout finished third in 14.96.
“Was there ever any doubt? Was there ever any doubt? We came for a show,” an elated Lyles told Czech TV.
Earlier this month, Lyles took a comfortable win at the Wanda Diamond League meet in Rome with a 9.88 in the 100m, his fastest since clinching gold at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
The high-energy, anime-loving showman has had strong indoor and outdoor performances throughout the year so far, and was named on this year’s Time100 list of the most influential people.
Dutch star Femke Broeders-Bol had to bow to in-form Swiss Audrey Werro in her outdoor debut in the 800m.
The 26-year-old Broeders-Bol has switched from 400m hurdles, in which she had won two world gold medals, and clocked an impressive 1 minute 57.13 seconds for second place.
“It was so cool, I love racing in Ostrava. It was tough, but I enjoyed it,” she said.
Broeders-Bol has also claimed multiple medals as the anchor leg in 4x400m relay teams, notably a gold in the mixed event in the Paris Olympics.
She ran her first 800m since 2017 in February, clocking a national record of 1 minute 59.07 seconds before withdrawing from the rest of the indoor season to nurse a foot injury.
The 22-year-old Werro won in 1 minute 54.45 seconds, half a second behind her personal best from March, after shedding Broeders-Bol with 200 metres to run.
“It was a really crazy run, but the time is very good, so I’m really happy,” Werro said.
Having set the eighth best time ever, she stayed over a second behind the oldest world record in athletics of 1:53.28 set in 1983 by Jarmila Kratochvilova of then-Czechoslovakia, who watched the race from the stands.
South Africa’s 20-year-old Bayanda Walaza won the men’s 100m as he equalled his personal best of 9.94 seconds, beating Emmanuel Eseme of Cameroon with 9.99 seconds.
US favourites Ronnie Baker and Jordan Anthony were demoted to the fourth and fifth spots, respectively, with times well over 10 seconds.
[Aljazeera]
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