The ongoing 8th edition of the Women’s T20 Asia Cup got underway on the 1st of October and match no. 15 from the action on day 8 between Bangladesh and India saw India’s teenage superstar, Shafali Verma, get a much-wanted half-century against her name and in the process, she also got to a special milestone.
Shafali Verma had been going through a rough patch, but that isn’t the same anymore as she against Malaysia played a mature knock of 46 runs off 39 balls and in her very next game against Bangladesh women played yet another mature knock of 55 runs off 44 balls.
Shafali Verma against Bangladesh got her innings building with ones and twos and on the score of 15*(12) hit one for a maximum to switch gears. She followed her maximum with a couple of back-to-back boundaries and helped India close out their powerplay with a boundary. Just when Bangladesh looked to gain some control with a couple of economical overs, Shafali Verma broke the shackles with a boundary and topped it with a maximum.
Yet another record to her name and she’s just getting started!
She is 🇮🇳Shafali Verma!#CricketTwitter #WomensAsiaCup2022 pic.twitter.com/R4ij3TddbI
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) October 8, 2022
Shafali off a single got to her 4th T20I half-century, while this fifty had come off her 30 balls. Bangladesh by then had gained control over India with economical spells and Shafali only managed a boundary more, before departing on the score of 55(44) in the 15th over with 114 on board. Her innings included, a couple of maximums and 5 boundaries and her innings guided India to close out their 20 overs on the score of 159/5.
Shafali’s 55 saw her get to the 1036 T20I runs mark in 43 innings (43 Matches) at an average of 24.66, a strike rate of 134.75 and has got the highest score of 73 against her name. The 18-year-old created a new record by becoming the youngest women’s cricketer to achieve the feat and in doing so, she overtook teammate, Jemimah Rodrigues, who’d previously achieved the feat at age 21 years and 32 days old. Whereas, Shafali has just taken 18 years and 253 days to complete the milestone.
Shafali Verma is also the fastest woman to reach the milestone from the time of her T20I debut i.e, 3 years and 14 days. She overtook Australia’s all-format skipper, Meg Lanning’s long-standing record of 3 years and 87 days to complete the milestone. She is also the fastest to complete 1000 T20I runs with respect to balls faced, having done so in 769 balls.
The milestone game became a lot more special for Shafali Verma as she later in the game during a crunch situation went on to deliver economical spells and just before closing out, bagged a couple of wickets and finished with figures of 4-0-10-2. India having lost their game to Pakistan, had a crucial outing today against Bangladesh and the win is just what India wanted and an in-form Shafali ahead of the knockouts as well leaves India with boxes ticked.
