- 18-year-old Shafali Verma captains and opens the batting for India.
- Verma was selected for the senior India women’s team at the age of 15.
- She has already competed in both a full ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup.
Shafali Verma is not only India’s great performer at the ICC U19 Women’s T20 World Cup; she is the competition’s standout performer overall.
The 18-year-old Verma captains and opens the batting for India, and she brings a plethora of knowledge to the competition in South Africa.
Verma was selected for the senior India women’s team for the first time at the age of 15, and she has already competed in both a full ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup and an ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, as well as being a member of the silver-winning side from last summer’s Commonwealth Games.
Verma has a higher pedigree than her counterparts at this tournament, having already played 74 full internationals for India despite her young age (she will turn 19 a day before the final of this tournament).
Additionally, Verma’s talent was evident in the Indian team’s outstanding opening performance at the U19 T20 World Cup.
In the powerplay, Verma and opening partner Shweta Sehrawat piled on 70 runs as they attempted to follow down South Africa’s impressive score of 166. Verma took over in the sixth and final over of that Powerplay.
South African medium pacer with a right arm. Nthabiseng Nini’s first ball of the over was hit to the boundary for four runs.
And then there were four more, and then another, and another, and another, and another.
Verma, not satisfied with five straight boundaries, strummed the sixth and last ball of the over for six, accumulating 26 runs off the over and moving from 18 off 7 to 44 from 13.
Verma effectively had no more to contribute when she was dismissed shortly after for 45, but the damage she did in that one cruel over had prepared the field for the chase and given India control of the needed run rate.
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