4 min learnUp to date: Mar 8, 2026 04:43 PM IST
The timing isn’t too auspicious for Indian cricket followers, however it was on this very day in 2020 when the Girls in Blue had been thrashed within the ICC Girls’s T20 World Cup last.
It was one of many landmark days in ladies’s cricket historical past as a packed Melbourne Cricket Floor watched the house crew outclassing Harmanpreet Kaur’s aspect by 85 runs. Alyssa Healy was the star of the present with a 39-ball 75 and by a weird coincidence the Australian wicket-keeper batter took the sphere for her nation for the final time on the identical day six years later – main her crew to victory in a Check match at Perth towards the identical crew.
The ultimate was performed simply days earlier than the world shut down on account of the Covid-19 pandemic, therefore it remained within the followers’ consciousness for a very long time with no sport for fairly a while.
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India had come into the title conflict filled with confidence and fancied their possibilities as they’d overwhelmed Meg Lanning’s crew – thought-about nearly invincible at the moment – of their opening recreation in Sydney. Although their semifinal towards England was washed out, they made the ultimate after ending high of their group.
However any prospect of a repeat of the consequence within the group fixture was nipped within the bud by Healy, who hit seven fours and 5 sixes in her whirlwind knock.
However it was removed from being a one-woman present. Beth Mooney was the star of the World Cup and the left-hander was adjudged Participant of the Event for her tally of 259 runs. The 2 placed on a gap stand of 115 runs in lower than 12 overs to knock the stuffing out of the Indians.
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India had a spin-heavy bowling assault with Shikha Pandey the only real medium pacer. She went for 52 runs in her 4 overs, and although the ultimate complete didn’t attain ranges it may have, Mooney remained unbeaten with a 54-ball 78, with 10 fours, to take Australia to 184/4 in 20 overs. It was as a result of efforts of Deepti Sharma (2/38), Rajeshwari Gayakwad (0/29), Poonam Yadav (1/30) and Radha Yadav (1/34) that the hosts had been stopped properly wanting 200.
India’s possibilities rested, to an incredible deal, on the beginning offered by teenage sensation Shafali Verma, however the Rohtak lady was out to medium pacer Megan Schutt off the third ball of the chase. Subsequent batter, Taniya Bhatia needed to be retired on account of a concussion, and when Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues and Harmanpreet had been again within the dugout earlier than the Powerplay was performed with simply 30 runs on the board, the writing was on the wall.
Deepti top-scored with 33, however solely formalities remained because the hosts had begun celebrating a lot earlier than India had been bowled out for 99 in 19.1 overs. Schutt (4/18) and left-arm spinner Jess Jonassen (3/20) had been the wreckers-in-chief.
On the optimistic aspect, India’s run to the ultimate, after the looks within the 50-over last at Lord’s three years earlier, raised the profile of girls’s cricket within the nation and was a significant stepping stone to all that got here after – the launch of the Girls’s Premier League and victory within the 50-over World Cup on dwelling soil in 2025.