It’s never easy to perform and deliver match spells or impactful stunning spells and India has had a few get on the list and record stunning figures in T20I’s be it in winning or losing cause. Below we go through a few of such stunning spells and the storyline around them.
1. Jhulan Goswami: 5/11
The 2012 Australia tour of India saw Australia win the tour match 1-0, the ODI series 3-0 and the 5 matches T20I series 4-1. In the 5th T20I, there came an end to Australia’s win streak and it did require something special that Jhulan Goswami produced. Jhulan struck wickets of Alyssa Healy and Lisa Sthalekar before coming on and cleaning up the tail with wickets of Ellyse Perry, Erin Osborne and Sharon Millanta to claim her fifer. Jhulan Goswami registered excellent figures of 3.5 overs which had her bowl a maiden, concede 11 runs and bag 5 wickets at an economy rate of 2.86. India chasing a low 89 won the game by 8 wickets and managed a win in the series. This performance by Jhulan is on the top of the ladder for best bowling figures in T20I.
2. Priyanka Roy: 5/16
Early in the ICC Women’s World Twenty20 in Taunton, England the stage was set for cricket’s favourite game in India and Pakistan faceoff. Pakistan didn’t have a great start as Rumeli Dhar struck early for India and with a run-out things got bad to worse for Pakistan. Priyanka Roy was on to bowl and struck all wickets of Pakistan’s lower middle order and the tail to claim her fifer. Priyanka in her 3.5 overs conceded 16 runs and picked up 5 wickets with an economy of 4.17 that saw Pakistan bowled out for 75 and India in reply did go 5 down, but got to the required with 14 balls to spare.
3. Sravanthi Naidu: 4/9
India’s opening T20I of the 3-match series saw Bangladesh restrict India to a low 101/1 in 20 overs. India required something special to defend the low total and it was delivered by S.K Naidu who first struck the wicket of the set middle order batter, Rumana Ahmed, on 21, before cleaning the tail. SK Naidu registered figures of 3 wickets in 3 overs conceding 9 runs. Her excellent spell and a combined effort by the rest of the team helped India bag the win by 16 runs as Bangladesh were bowled out for 85 in 20 overs.
4. Poonam Yadav: 4/9
It was the big stage, the finals of the women’s Twenty20 Asia cup finals. India were put in to bat and had a poor start, it only was an aggressive half-century from Harmanpreet Kaur that pushed India to a total of 112 in 20 overs. Bangladesh in reply had starts from all of their top 4 but failed to convert as Poonam Yadav stepped in for India bagging all of Bangladesh’s top 4. Harmanpreet Kaur too bagged a couple more but wasn’t enough as Bangladesh got the required couple of the last ball off Harmanpreet Kaur’s bowling and Bangladesh won the game by 3 wickets. Poonam Yadav’s spell couldn’t help India bag the win but in process gets on the record list with figures of 4 wickets in 4 overs conceding only 9 runs in a must-win under pressure.
5. Deepti Sharma: 4/10
India touring West Indies won the ODI series 2-1, bagged a win in the opening T20I and the second had a Deepti Sharma special. West Indies won the toss and opt to bat, but had everything go Deepti Sharma’s way as she struck all the wickets of the West Indies middle order. In her spell of 4 overs, Deepti conceded 10 runs and bagged 4 wickets. West Indies were restricted to a low 103-7 in their 20 that India chased down comfortably in 10.3 over with all 10 wickets in hand as Shafali Verma smashed 35 balls 69 and Smriti Mandhana 30(28) both remaining unbeaten.
(stats as on 21st July 2022)
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