In the Hangzhou Asian Games, Vastrakar takes the women’s cricket team of India to the final
The fast bowler of Team India, Pooja Vastrakar, bowled a superb spell to take the Indian women's cricket team to its maiden Asian Games final, as on Sunday they defeated Bangladesh by eight wickets in a lopsided semi-final. Vastrakar, who is the right arm seamer and has replaced Anjali Sarvani in the squad just before leaving India, had career-best figures of 4/17 in four overs as Bangladesh were bowled out for 51 in 17.5 overs, which is their lowest-ever T20 score against the neighbours.
Vastrakar and her young new-ball partner, Titas Sadhu, who had taken 1 wicket while giving away 10 runs in the 4 overs she bowled, extracted all the juice available from the deck as they bowled quickly, with the bounce on offer also helping.
Only captain Nigar Sultana, who had scored 12 runs, reached double figures for Bangladesh. The target of 52 runs was a cakewalk, and Team India achieved it in only 8.2 overs. Kanika Ahuja 1 not out and Jemimah Rodrigues 20 not out took India towards victory despite losing captain Smriti Mandhana for 7 and Shafali for 17 cheaply.