India outplay England to win inaugural Women's U-19 T20 World Cup in South Africa

India Women U19 vs England Women U19, Final: India outplay England to win inaugural Women's U-19 T20 World Cup in South Africa. Titas Sadhu's 2-6, Archana Devi's 2-17 and Soumya Tiwari-Gongadi Trisha's 46-run stand are top performances.

Shafali led India to its inaugural Women's U-19 T20 World Cup title (Image: ©BCCI/Twitter)

Brief Scores:India 69-3 (Soumya Tiwari 24*, Gongadi Trisha 24, Hannah Baker 1/13) beat England 68 (Ryana MacDonald-Gay 19, Titas Sadhu 2/6, Parshavi Chopra 2/13) by 7 wickets

Player of the Match: Titas Sadhu (2/6)

Player of the Tournament: Grace Scrivens (293 runs & 9 wickets)

India Women U-19 team has made history; they have won the inaugural edition of ICC Women's U19 T20 World Cup against England at Senwes Park in Potchefstroom in South Africa on Sunday by a margin of seven wickets.

Splendid bowling by Titas Sadhu, Parshavi Chopra skittles England Women U-19 for 68

What a win it was. The credit goes to the splendid bowling spells of Titas Sadhu and Parshavi Chopra. Shafali Verma won the toss and opted to bowl. The lone seamer Sadhu in her very first over took a wicket. She dismissed Liberty Heap for a duck. Team England struggled to find the rhythm thereon as they lost wickets in heaps.

Off-spinner Archana Devi then struck and took two wickets in just one over. She dismissed Niamh Holland and then England captain Grace Scrivens, who is also her side’s leading run-scorer. From there, other bowlers chipped in with regular breakthroughs as England’s batting line-up had no answers to the queries posed by India. Devi also took a one-handed catch off Parshavi Chopra’s fuller ball to get Ryana MacDonald-Gay, the last hope for England’s batting line up. Macdonald-Gay scored 19 runs in 24 balls with three fours.

The fielding by Archana Devi and Soumya Tiwari was something that could not be ignored while celebrating the triumph of the team. Tiwari’s hit with a throw from cover to run out Josie Groves and wicketkeeper Richa Ghosh’s brilliant reaction time while stumping to dismiss Hannah Baker are something that said the team is near perfect in every aspect.

India managed to get England all out on 68 runs in 17.1 overs. Sadhu, Archana and Chopra took two wickets each, while Mannat Kashyap, Shafali Verma and Sonam Yadav took one wicket each. Sadhu remained the most successful bowler giving away only six runs in 4 overs and taking two wickets with an economy rate of 1.50.

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Trisha-Soumya put on a match-winning 46-run stand in the final (Image: ©BCCI/Twitter)

Soumya Tiwari & Gongadi Trisha execute patient chase

India needed 69 runs in 20 overs to win their maiden women’s world cup. Shafali Verma and Shweta Sehrawat started the campaign but went back within four overs. Shafali made a few striking shots; she hit a massive six over long-off but she lost her wicket to Hannah Baker when Alexa Stonehouse grabbed a stunning low catch at mid-on. Shafali wanted to go over mid-on but could not get under that and popped the ball toward the fielder, who dived low to her left and grabbed it. Her dismissal was a crucial point where England's team's hopes started rising, but the highest run-scorer in this World Cup, Shweta Sehrawat was still there.

But in the next over only India lost Sehrawat for a personal score of 5 with only 20 runs on the board. However, the relief for India was that just 49 runs were needed to win the match. Now all hopes were on the middle-order batters. Anxiety on the Indian side increased while England’s spirit came alive.

Gongadi Trisha and Soumya Tiwari built a solid partnership to guide the team through to victory. Both of them kept on playing England’s most successful bowler Baker very cautiously and calmly, even though Scrivens dropped Soumya when she was on one run.

Trisha and Soumya had a splendid partnership of 46 runs in 55 balls. Together they both smashed six boundaries, which was much needed to release the pressure. Two consecutive boundaries by Trisha at the start of the twelfth over off Ellie Anderson gave back the momentum to India, and from there it was sure that this cup belongs to them.

By the end of the 14th over, Soumya managed to make the last three runs with Hrishita Basu at the other end as India achieved the target much before it was anticipated.

With their brilliant performance in the ICC Women's U19 T20 World Cup 2023, there are a new set of hopes being put up with this team and women’s cricket.

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