History has now been aptly made by this young battalion of Women in Blue. In a much popular tone and words, “India lifts the U19 T20 World Cup” trophy defeating England gigantically by seven wickets. The world of cricket bows down to the spirits of the Indian team who showed their standard of aura and won the inaugural ICC U19 T20 World Cup to bring the trophy home.
Titas Sadhu was adjudged the Player of the Match for her outstanding spell that ousted the English top and middle order. Grace Scrivens stole the show for the Player of the Series as Shweta Sehrawat fell short of the maximum scorer’s race.
Let’s unfurl the yarn from the beginning whilst the stage was all set for the two extremely talented sides to lock horns in the Finals of the inaugural U19 Women’s T20 World Cup and both the teams came up buckled well with their boots tied fast and fumed.
Without much ado, India won the toss and invited the furious English side to put some target on the board. Both the sides remained unchanged as Grace Scrivens and Liberty Heap jogged out to open the batting as usual. The skipper was off the mark on the second ball of the first over of the Final game, commenced by Titas Sadhu. And, most amazingly, Sadhu bowled and caught Heap for a mere duck.
What a delivery! Titas Sadhu leaves Seren stunned with a brilliant delivery!
— FanCode (@FanCode) January 29, 2023
Watch #INDvENGFinalOnFanCode https://t.co/T4vX72TcLA
.
.#U19T20WorldCup #TeamIndia #INDvENG pic.twitter.com/cFH0UWtfIZ
Niamh Holland, at number 3, showed some confidence with a boundary although edged thick in the second over bowled by Archana Devi. Following Scrivens’ double Holland came up strong enough to float the ball towards the fence through the backward square leg before being succumbed to Archana as she stroked the stumps much harder than the batter to get her bowled at 10 off 8 balls. Archana was on top of the world as she dismissed the English skipper in the same fourth over.
Ryana MacDonald-Gay and Seren Smale were now standing afresh without much clue under pressure to sustain the English innings and put up a defendable score. With Gay’s lift over mid-off for a four, the powerplay summarized at 22 for the loss of 3. But Smale (3 off 9) joined the queue of packing the bags earlier as she fell on the Bengal bowler’s outstanding delivery.
Archana Devi takes a splendid one-handed blinder with a full length dive to dismiss Ryana. The fielding has been top class by Team India.
— FanCode (@FanCode) January 29, 2023
Watch #INDvENGFinalOnFanCode https://t.co/T4vX72TcLA
.
.#U19T20WorldCup #TeamIndia #INDvENG pic.twitter.com/nUPQxopaAx
Gay tried to hold the match from one side with her two boundaries coming around, one in the eighth over and a second on the next, and Charis Pavely tried to provide her full stance to build a partnership with rotating strikes. But Smale too couldn’t last it longer than the last ball of the tenth over where she met her LBW at 2 off 9 balls. England were 39 for 5 halfway through the innings.
After adding a valuable but short-sustained knock of 19 off 24 balls, Gay gifted her wicket to Archana on the very first ball of the twelfth over. Although Josie Groves tried her best to work on running between the wickets which was anticipated well by Alexa Stonehouse with a boundary in the thirteenth over, Groves ran short to reach the crease and walk back to the dug out contributing just 4 runs to the crawling English total.
Direct hit and gone! Soumya Tiwari's superb throw gets rid of Josie Groves.
— FanCode (@FanCode) January 29, 2023
Watch #INDvENGFinalOnFanCode https://t.co/T4vX72TcLA
.
.#U19T20WorldCup #TeamIndia #INDvENG pic.twitter.com/5yo3i1sTMD
The Indian skipper was the next to join the wicket-taking party as Shafali Verma pounded on the wickets to get Hannah Baker (0 off 1 ball) stumped by Richa Ghosh. Sophia Smale tried to ease the pressure and rebuilt the innings with two back-to-back boundaries in the same over but followed Stonehouse’s dismissal by Mannat Kashyap on the fourth ball of the seventeenth over to get herself knocked down by Yadav at just 11 off 7 balls. Smale was with the heart to score bigger, but the English total liked to rest permanently at 68 with the entire battalion back to the pavilion.
India was just 69 runs beyond history. And to engulf the same, marching down the ground were the Indian openers, Shafali Verma and Shweta Sehrawat. And what a thunder it was to start the chase with a blistering boundary by the Indian skipper on the very first ball of the innings. Hannah Baker looked a bit trembled but gathered pace and concluded the over with just 1 more run on the board.
Verma seemed to be set from the pavilion itself as the Final looked so authentic and aesthetic with her humongous hit into the stands for the first maximum of the Finals. The championship game by this time was not getting the exact taste and delicacy without Verma’s usual thunderbolt. Short and crisp but Verma had to depart early as the England star, Baker bounced back harder to send Verma back to the dug-out at 15 off 11 balls.
World Champions!!! More than 15 years after 2007, the Tricolour flies high again in South Africa. Our Girls in Blue have done us proud.
— FanCode (@FanCode) January 29, 2023
Watch the full match highlights on #FanCode https://t.co/mFPIsIW06o
.
.#U19T20WorldCup #TeamIndia #INDvENG #INDvENGFinalOnFanCode pic.twitter.com/TXMQjrQXp6
Things started to pressurize India as Sehrawat too, fell short of Scrivens’ delivery after scoring a boundary in the fourth over. Soumya Tiwari and Gongadi Trisha tried to play it soft and stable with a few singles keeping in mind to first get the hold of the runs more than halfway. And then it was Tiwari tucking the fifth ball of the eighth over for a classic boundary followed by another in the next. With some good piece of relaxed running between the wickets, the duo furthered the Women in Blue near the target as the tenth over summarized at 48 for 2.
Trisha was no shorter than Tiwari as she banged two back-to-back boundaries to Ellie Anderson in the twelfth over. A valuable and outstanding knock of 24 off 29 balls came to an end as Stonehouse bowled Trisha out in the very next over. But nothing to worry much about the loss, a double and a single by Tiwari announced India the first-ever U19 T20 World Cup Champions. What an emphatic and enormous performance by the young Women in Blue to get the tighter hold of the World Cup Trophy.
Get the latest news here, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram for more updates.
