Women's World T20 2018: Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur gives Aussies a bit of hope

In their opening match of the ICC Women’s World T20 2018, Australia triumphantly thumped Pakistan to register an impressive 52-run victory in Guyana on Sunday. Alyssa Healy, the wicketkeeper-batter of Australia, played a major role to make the win a reality for her side.

Apart from doing an excellent job behind the stumps by grabbing two catches and stumping a couple, Healy also was the joint top-scorer for her side with a quick-fire 48 off just 29 balls, as Australia first posted a competitive 165 for 5 and then successfully restricted Pakistan to a mere 113 for 8 in their 20 overs.

Healy, after being awarded the Player of the Match, conceded that before the match, watching Harmanpreet Kaur score a century gave Australia the hope to do well against Pakistan. Kaur scored a mind-blowing 103 off 51 balls to take India to 194/5 as they humbled New Zealand by 34 runs in the tournament opener. The 29-year-old’s ton was the first by an Indian woman in T20Is.

Alyssa Healy had herself played in the match last year when Kaur had hit a century in the Women’s World Cup to end Australia’s campaign in England. She said that Australia were concerned as to how the wicket would play out but was comforted once Harmanpreet went wild. “I think the other night sort of scared us off a little bit,” Healy said as quoted by Cricket.com.au.

Kaur gave us a little bit of hope

“When we played South Africa, we were a bit worried about the conditions we were potentially going to get. But I guess watching the game before us today on the telly and watching Kaur just bomb them into the stands I think gave us a little bit of hope that the wicket was going to be pretty true, and that turned out to be the case. And it looks like a fantastic cricket wicket, and hopefully, it will stay that way all four round games.”

The all-important clash between India and Australia is still a week away, but prior to that Australia will have to tackle Ireland, who according to Healy have match-winners in their side.

~ Written by Nahmat Maeraj

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