G Kamalini’s well-paced fifty complemented the excellent work of spinners as defending champions India subdued England by nine wickets to enter the final of the ICC Women’s U19 T20 World Cup in Kuala Lumpur on Friday. India will face South Africa in the title match on Sunday. The Proteas qualified for their first-ever ICC Women’s U19 T20 World Cup final following an impressive five-wicket win over Australia in the first semifinal earlier in the day. Left-arm spinners Parunika Sisodia (3/21) and Vaishnavi Sharma (3/23) shackled England with fine spell to limit them to 113 for eight.
India made 117 for one in 15 overs riding on good knocks of openers G Trisha (35, 29b, 5x4s) and Kamalini (56 not out, 50b, 8x4s).
Trisha went off the blocks quite quickly and her preferred scoring route was the ‘V’ down the ground as India raced to 44 for no loss in the Power Play.
Kamalini has a slice of fortune as well as England skipper Abigale Norgrove grassed the ball while catching an uppish drive off pacer Amu Surenkumar.
The dismissal of Trisha, who was bowled by left-arm spinner Phoebe Brett after a 60-run alliance, did not deter Kamalini as she added 47 runs with Sanika Chalke (11) for the unbroken second wicket as India cantered home.
Kamalini’s batting was all about precise placing and finding angles rather than power as England bowlers ran out of options against the left-hander. Earlier, England batters were inexplicably stubborn with their intention to play sweep and paddles, resulting in five of them getting castled in a total of six bowled dismissals.
In fact, England made a bright beginning reaching 37 for no loss in the fifth over before the malice set in in their ranks.
Jemima Spence (9) was out pressing forward for a defensive prod, but was beaten by left-arm spinner Sisodia’s darted-in delivery.
“I bowled on the same spot and let the ball do the work. I bowled more to batters instead of doing single-wicket practice,” said player-of-the-match Sisodia.
“It helps me. I need a batter in front of me to try new things. The final is the wish and that’s the goal for all of us here,” she added. Trudy Johnson was the first to play sweep and was bowled by Sisodia. England then went through a phase of solidity.
Davina Perrin (45, 40b, 6x4s, 2x6s) and Norgrove (30, 25, 3x4s, 1×6) shared a stance of 44 runs for the third wicket as England marched to 73 for two in 10 overs.
But the second half of England’s innings saw reckless employment of sweep and its varieties, as they could only manage 40 runs in the final 10 overs, losing six wickets.
Norgrove, Perrin, Charlotte Stubbs and Katie Jones, all poorly executed that shot to get out.
England lost three wickets in the 16th over to tumble irrevocably.
Apart from Stubbs, Prisha Thanawala and Charlotte Lambert fell in the space of three balls as England were reduced to 92 for eight.
In the last four overs, the late-order batters hung around to take their side past the 100-run mark which was woefully short on this day.
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