“High backlift against Poonam Yadav cost Australia the game,” says former India Cricketer Jaya Sharma

Former India cricketer Jaya Sharma who has represented India in 77 ODIs, 1 T20 and 1 Test match and was also the first female recipient of the ‘BCCI player of the year award’ has joined Female Cricket’s Expert Panel for the ongoing Women’s T20 World Cup 2020.

The World Cup began with an important win for team India, over the defending champions Australia in the opening match. It was a tough fight as the whole world watched the two best teams competing in the first match of Women’s T20 World Cup. Great innings played by both the teams, where team India baffled the crowd with their interesting game-changing moments.

Jaya Sharma congratulated the Indian Team on this victory and she also highlighted key moments from the game: “To start with 132 was decent on the pitch that was slowish in nature and the bowlers of Australia did quite well to restrict Indian batters.”

“But the highlight of the innings was the partnership between Jemimah Rodrigues and Deepti Sharma. They steadied the ship for Indian Team, looked composed, looked in rhythm, took singles and doubles and scored boundaries every now and then,” she further added.

Commenting on the batting of the team, Sharma said: “Great batting by Deepti Sharma who scored 49 not out. I was very happy to see Deepti Sharma promoted up the order after the Tri-nation tournament.”

The Australian batters couldn’t read and adjust themselves to Poonam Yadav’s flighted deliveries:

“If you are playing the slow bowlers on a slowish track, then you need to negotiate it very smartly. You need to use the batter’s crease very well. You need to keep shifting in your crease forward and backward and you need to have a downward, a low back-lift. Because with higher back-lift, the ball does not come onto the bat. So that’s the key in such situations.”

 

 

“The Australian batters against Poonam Yadav had a high back-lift and that’s why they were not able to connect the ball with the bat,” Sharma concluded.

Poonam Yadav was definitely the talk of the evening who produced a match-winning spell. Congratulating her, Jaya Sharma added: “Definitely Poonam Yadav stole the show and what brilliant innings from an orthodox wrist spinner. Wrist spinners can make or break a game. But here for India luckily Poonam Yadav made the game out of nowhere. When she was brought into the attack, she took quick 4 wickets and also had a  hat-trick opportunity.”

Match Winning Spell by India’s Poonam Yadav 😍 #WT20WC | #T20WorldCup | #AUSvIND | #PoonamYadav | #TeamIndia pic.twitter.com/yBA0jYPt0k

— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) February 21, 2020

The trump card Poonam Yadav bamboozled Australian batters completely.

“They were clueless about the variation being bowled and how to negotiate with them,” said Jaya Sharma appreciating Poonam’s match-winning performance.