Editorial: One last hurdle


The Indian women’s cricket team arrived in their maiden T20 World Cup final on Thursday after rain washed out the semi-final clash against England in Sydney.

Since there were no reserve days for the knockout battle, the journey of English women in the ongoing T20 WC ended. Although Australia did make an appeal to the International Cricket Council (ICC) for a reserve day, the apex body denied the request.

Due to India’s unbeaten run in the competition, the ‘Women in Blue’ topped Group A, and therefore they successfully booked a place in the finals.

Shefali Verma has lit up the T20 World Cup with her performances at the top of the order. She is the third highest run-scorer in the tournament at an astonishing strike-rate of 161.

It is the highest strike-rate of players to bat more than once, while her career T20 strike-rate of 147 is the best of those to have scored more than 120 international runs. After just 18 Twenty20 innings for India, she has hit 58 fours and 21 sixes, and is already top of the International Cricket Council’s T20 batting rankings.

The finals will be held Sunday and India plays South Africa. One last match to lay hands on the coveted trophy. It has been a phenomenal show by Indian eves so far. They have remained undefeated. With T20 World Cup for boys round-the-corner, they can be inspired by the performance of Harmanpreet Kaur and girls.