India opening batter Shafali Verma partly contributed in her team’s successful attempt of picking their second wicket in the recently concluded first ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2023 semi-final against Australia in Cape Town.
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Australia opening batter Beth Mooney’s 16th T20I half-century was brought to an end on the penultimate delivery of the 12th over when the left-handed batter cut a Shikha Pandey delivery straight to Verma at backward point.
Having grabbed a straightforward catch, Verma wasn’t able to control her emotions which comprised an abusive send-off. Pick of the Australian batters, Mooney scored a hard-hitting 54 (37) with the help of seven fours and a six.
A primary reason why Verma expressed anger at Mooney was because she had herself dropped a simple catch to give her a reprieve earlier in the match. One of the two Indian fielders who erred at the Newlands today, Verma perhaps enjoyed a redemption even if it had come at some cost.
On a lighter note, fans were reminded of England Test captain Ben Stokes and former India captain Virat Kohli because of Verma’s cuss word. “B*h*nch*d,” the word used by Verma, sounds like Stokes’ surname. Kohli, meanwhile, also used to use this cuss word excessively back in the day.
Verma’s gesture, however, wasn’t appreciated by fans across social media platforms. A flop tournament (102 runs at an average and strike rate of 20.40 and 108.51) with the bat in hand consisted of Verma scoring 9 (6) whilst chasing a 173-run target on Friday. In addition to her batting failures, Verma also dropping catches earned her criticism for all the right reasons.
Twitter reminded of Ben Stokes as Shafali Verma abuses after grabbing catch vs Australia
India captain Harmanpreet Kaur’s unfortunate dismissal right before the slog overs changed the course of the match. Not giving up on a significant advantage, defending champions Australia eventually registered a 5-run victory to quality for their seventh T20 World Cup final in a row.
