It was heartbreak and ecstasy in equal measures in Potchefstroom as India and England made the final of the inaugural Under-19 Women’s T20 World Cup to be played on Sunday. While India comfortably beat New Zealand in the first semi-final, tensions swayed one way and then the other before England edged Australia out by three runs in a low-scoring thriller.
Defending 99, England fast bowlers Ellie Anderson and Alexa Stonehouse struck early before legspinner Hannah Baker’s triple-strike crippled Australia. She varied her flight and length to bowl Ella Hayward and then got enough purchase from the surface to have Australia captain Rhys McKenna caught at mid-off and trapped wicketkeeper Paris Hall three balls later to have them at 59 for 7.
Ella Wilson and Milly Illingworth, batting at No. 9 and No. 10, managed to hit a four apiece towards the end to get the equation down to Australia needing four with two wickets and just shy of three overs in hand. But the latter ran out the middle on a direct hit by Liana McDonald-Gay, causing a wild celebration when Grace Scrivens caught No. 11 Maggie Clarke lbw on an off-spin.
The scene was nowhere near halftime when Clark, Hayward and Sianna Ginger came back for his three-four. The script didn’t pan out after England’s choice to bat, as they regularly dropped wickets by the end of the power play to finish 29 for 4.
Illingworth’s pace and Clark’s relentless length had Liberty Heap (who has found success in partnership with captain Scrivens) and No. 3 Niamh in his Holland. Off-spinner Hayward caused further misery by breaking the backbone of the Middle Order. However, Scrivens (now second on the tournament’s scorers list) held on to the end as England fell to 5 for 37 in nine overs. However, she found it difficult to resist a full-length ball from Seamer Ginger and holed Claire Moore with a long off of 20. England were able to move closer to 100th. , thanks to a 46-run, 8-wicket partnership between Stonehouse (25) and Josie Groves (15).
Earlier in the day, the Indian spinners weaved a web around New Zealand, holding 107 for 9 before a masterclass from his Shweta Sehrawat in the opener carried them to his eight-wicket win. Sehrawat was undefeated 61 out of just 45 balls he shot 10 of his 4-balls and with Soumya Tiwari (26) he had his partnership for 62 seconds wickets. It was her third half-century in the competition that she topped the batting charts.
That was after legspinner Parshabi Chopra, who shone for her Player of the Match performance against Sri Lanka, scored the star 3-20 and edged out New Zealand by a small margin. It broke a 37-run second wicket partnership between Georgia Plummer and 26-year-old Isabella Gays by taking the latter’s lbw.
Only Plimmer offered resistance with her 32-ball 35 bat, and she was her seventh batsman with a total of 91.