Courtesy: ICC/X
Renuka Thakur, the Indian pacer, picked up two wickets in two consecutive deliveries, to rock Australia early in the all-important Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 Group A match, which could determine her team’s fate in potentially reaching the knockout stage of the tournament. At the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Renuka Thakur took the key wickets of Beth Mooney, followed by sending Georgia Wareham packing without troubling the scorers in the first power play stage.
On the fourth ball of the third over in the Australian innings, Renuka Thakur bowled an away going delivery to the left-handed Beth Mooney (2 off 7), which she managed to carve towards the short point fielder Radha Yadav, who took a smart low catch. The very next ball saw the right-arm Indian pacer trapped Georgia Wareham, the right-handed batter, in front of the stumps for no score.
Watch the clip of Renuka Thakur's back-to-back wickets here:
Tahlia McGrath captains Australia in place of injured Alyssa Healy
Notably, at the toss time, Tahlia McGrath walked onto the field instead of captain Alyssa Healy, who was ruled out of the clash due to an injury. She managed to call the toss right against Indian captain Harmanpreet Singh before deciding to bat first in sultry conditions and a wearing pitch in Sharjah, where a lot of matches in the Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 have already been played.
Below are the playing XI of India and Australia for the all-important Group A match in the Women’s T20 World Cup 2024:
India: Shafali Verma, Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Jemimah Rodriguez, Richa Ghosh (wk), Deepti Sharma, Pooja Vastrakar, Arundhati Reddy, Shreyanka Patil, Asha Sobhana, Renuka Singh
Australia: Beth Mooney (wk), Grace Harris, Ellyse Perry, Ashleigh Gardner, Phoebe Litchfield, Tahlia McGrath (c), Georgia Wareham, Annabel Sutherland, Sophie Molineux, Megan Schutt, Darcie Brown
