“What an unbelievable match”: Dinesh Karthik bows down to Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma and Richa Ghosh as IND W beat AUS W in super over

Dixit Bhargav | 11/12/2022
"What an unbelievable match": Dinesh Karthik bows down to Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma and Richa Ghosh as IND W beat AUS W in super over

During the second T20I of Australia Women’s tour of India 2022 in Navi Mumbai, India Women beat Australia Women in a super over to stage a comeback in this five-match series.

A nail-biting match was a fitting arrangement on a Sunday night with no other international match being played simultaneously. In addition to over 45,000 people visiting the Dr DY Patil Sports Academy, host broadcaster Star Sports Network recorded in excess of a million fans watching the match in the business end on streaming platform Disney+Hotstar.

The match was worthy of grabbing so many eyeballs months before the start of the inaugural season of the Women’s Indian Premier League as no team managed to secure a victory in spite of some 400 runs being scored across 40 overs.

Chasing a 188-run target, India managed to score 14 runs in the last over to push the match to a super over. Heroics by vice-captain Smriti Mandhana (79), opening batter Shafali Verma (34) and wicket-keeper batter Richa Ghosh (26*) were followed by all-rounder Devika Vaidya (11*) hitting a couple of boundaries in the final match to prevent a second consecutive loss.

Dinesh Karthik bows down to Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma and Richa Ghosh

Veteran India wicket-keeper batter Dinesh Karthik was among the many who relished an entertaining contest tonight. Karthik took to social media platform Twitter to bow down to the trio of Mandhana, Verma and Ghosh for powering India to become the first team to defeat Australia in the shortest format this year.

While a 52-ball 76-run opening partnership between Mandhana and Verma put India on course to compete in a high-scoring match, batter Jemimah Rodrigues (4) and captain Harmanpreet Kaur (21) failing to generate any sort of impact hurt them in the middle overs.

Mandhana, who hit nine fours and four sixes at a strike rate of 161.22 in a match-winning innings, witnessed Ghosh taking the onus on herself after her dismissal in the 17th over. With India needing 46 off 25 with seven wickets in hand at the time of Ghosh’s arrival in the middle, the 19-year old player hit three sixes at a strike rate of 200 to turn the tables.

Role reversal in the super over meant that Ghosh hitting a six first-ball six was followed by Mandhana scoring 13* (3) as India put 20 runs on the board in the decisive over of the match.

Post Edited By: Dixit Bhargav
Australia Women Australia Women tour of India 2022 dinesh karthik India Women Richa Ghosh Shafali Verma Smriti Mandhana

About the author

Dixit Bhargav

Born and brought up in Pathankot, Dixit Bhargav is an engineering and sports management graduate who works as a Cricket Editor at The SportsRush. Having written more than 10,000 articles across more than five years at TSR, his first cricketing memory dates back to 2002 when former India captain Sourav Ganguly had waved his jersey at the historic Lord’s balcony. What followed for an 8-year-old was an instant adulation for both Ganguly and the sport. The optimist in him is waiting for the day when Punjab Kings will win their maiden Indian Premier League title. When not watching cricket, he is mostly found in a cinema hall watching a Punjabi movie.

Don’t miss these