T20 World Cup Starts in Style

Match One: Australia v India : Scorecard

If Australia felt this World Cup was going to be a breeze (and they had some justification for thinking that) then they were thoroughly disabused of the idea during this match.  Watching the TV in the corner of my lounge I thought the match was going very predictably during India's batting innings. How wrong can you be? Healy batted brilliantly and seemed back to her old self, that, and only one other double figure score, by Gardener, was all the Australian players could muster between them.

There are no doubt who were the stars of the day. While batsmen are usually more likely to get the 'Player of the Match' Awards, this time it went, with total justification, to Poonam Yadav. Her 4-19 knocked the stuffing out of Australia's middle order and with Shika Pandey collecting 3-13, there was no doubt whose bowlers were the ones who read the pitch best and knew how to use it.

Here's a few points I jotted down in the course of the match...

• Short boundaries once again made the running of 2s almost impossible and I'd guess there wasn't a 3 in the match. This really harms cricket! Anjum Chopra suggested the Indian's needed to run more 2s and 3s. Fat Chance!

• The 'music' played between overs held up the start of the next over several times. In one instance Rodrigues walked away to square leg in frustration. This needs sorting out.

• I noticed Healy running down the middle of the pitch - not a lot of point as the Indians had batted first!

• And talking of not holding things up unnecessarily I was delighted to see umpire Williams ushering the 12th and 13th off when they were presumably trying to bring out a message from the coach under the pretext of taking out water.

• And just to clear the criticisms out of the way, the distance from the boundary cushion to the advertising boards must be increased. We were nearly deprived of the sight later in this tournament of one of the most exciting players in the tournament, Smriti Mandhana. Luckily she seems to be OK. Just to check I still have a match from the 2018 on the black box under my TV so I watched a little of that to check. Distances then were from 50% to 100% larger. Something for the ICC?

• How to get a wicket when you've really fluffed it. The accidental ricochet from Healy's pads to obtain a run out was comical if you weren't the batsman. She did have the good grace to hang her head in her hands when she should have taken the ball. It could have  bounced off anywhere.

• One law change which has been raised by a number of TV and radio commentators is the refusing of a run when a review has been requested. If the player turns out to be 'not out' how is this logical?

• I was impressed with Deepti Sharma's batting. Starting cautiously she gradually increased the rate and held the innings together. She was not always 'match aware' however, jogging gently back to her ground late in her innings and nearly getting run out.

• I have to admire the Indian team as a whole. There was a time in the past when if things were going badly the heads went down and the match might as well have been called off at that point. While it's true there were disconsolate looks while the later order were batting, they seized the chance when it did arise. I know the Indians have beaten Australia very recently in the Tri-series but this match looked as if Australia had it in their pockets. It illustrates that in this sport you need never give up.

• Australia are not going to make this mistake again - or at least the odds must be massively against it.

At one point I found myself wondering if this was the finest spell of spin bowling I had seen since Holly Colvin retired.  Pandey's contribution to this victory was probably as vital as that of Yadav.

 

Shikha Pandey who's 3-13 backed up Yadav's 4-19

 

Off to such an interesting start this tournament could turn out to be rather less predictable than I, for one, first thought.