Dominant India win inaugural U-19 Women’s T20 World Cup

India 69/3 (Trisha 24, Tiwary 24*, Baker 1-13) defeated england 68 (McDonald-Gay 19, Sadhu 2-6, Chopra 2-13) by seven wickets

Tiwari, Trisha ensure minimum hiccups

Chasing 69, Shafali hit a massive six over long-off off left-arm spinner Sophia Smale. He clears his front leg and tonks it high and long. But leg-spinner Hannah Baker, opening the bowling with Smell, made Shafali invaluable.

Baker impressed throughout the tournament, varying his flight and length. He tempted Shafali to go on top but gave her little room to come down. The result was a miscue towards mid-on, where Alexa Stonehouse dived to the left to grab it. Soon England captain Grace Scrivens had Shweta Sehrawat, the highest run-scorer in the competition, skimming one to short fine leg.

But drop by drop Tiwari and then Trisha went out to calm the nerves. He also saw trial spells from Baker, Smale and Scrivens with little luck. Tiwary had just hit a superb lofted extra cover drive to get off the mark on his tenth ball when Baker floated a fuller and wide. She couldn’t resist and went for a drive away from the body only to have it slip to the edge where Scrivens couldn’t hang on.

Thereafter, Tiwary and Trisha buckled down and never took any chances and scored against England’s all-spin attack till the 10th over, when they were 48 for 2. Trisha then congratulated right arm fast bowler Ellie Anderson by hitting back-to-back boundaries. Hitting the left-arm seam of Stonehouse for another four in the next over. However, with three needed, Trisha’s discomfort saw her clean bowled.

But Tiwary was determined and experienced enough to lead Madhya Pradesh to the Under-19 domestic T20 title that things were not going to go downhill from there.

England faltered with the bat for the second consecutive match

England were well served through the tournament by their opening pair of Liberty Heap and Scrivens, but Heap fell early just as he had done in the semi-finals. Sadhu got a length ball to climb up and after India opted to bowl, Heap top-edged it to take a simple catch off Sadhu in the very first over of the match.

Archana opened the bowling instead of India’s preferred choice of left-arm spinner Mannat Kashyap, then bowled a delivery to spin in an attempt to bowl Niah Holland. He struck a blow by dismissing Scrivens, the only other player apart from Sehwarat to score more than 250 runs in the tournament, cheaply, with Trisha taking a brilliant catch running in from long-off. Archana saw Scrivens give him the charge and bowled it wide due to which the batsman could not control his stroke.

Soon, Chopra struck twice in two balls to leave England reeling at 43 for 6 in the 12th over. A brilliant one-hander from Archana at extra cover saw her lbw to Charis Powelli before seeing the back of Rayanna McDonald-Gay, England’s top scorer for the day.

Smale then hit two fours to increase the score but the last wicket fell when he was caught by left-arm spinner Sonam Yadav. While England successfully defended 99 in the semi-final against Australia, their total of 68 was too low to do so.