CHENNAI: Shafali Verma smashed a sensational hundred to help India beat Bangladesh and enter the final of the women's cricket event at the Asian Games. With this, the Women in Blue also assured a medal in the category for India. They will play Sri Lanka, who beat Pakistan in the other semifinal, for the gold medal on Tuesday.
Though India started as favourites, it was Shafali’s first white-ball hundred in international cricket that took the team to 195/4, putting them in a winning position. Later, seamer Deepti Sharma (3/7) and Nandni Sharma (3/25) helped India bundle Bangladesh out for paltry 81 to secure a 114-run win.
Having made her debut as a 15-year-old in 2019, Shafali had been patiently waiting for her first hundred in white-ball for over seven years. Known for her explosive style of batting, she used to give India quick starts but often missed out on converting them into big scores.
Last year, it all led to a massive blow as she was not picked for the ODI World Cup at home. Dropped from both white-ball teams, she went back to domestic cricket and smashed every bowler who came in her way to return to the T20I set up. The ODI chance, however, had to wait as she watched the home World Cup campaign from the sidelines.
As fate would have it, an unfortunate injury to Pratika Rawal brought her back for the semi-final and she stole the show in the summit clash, becoming the player of the match in the historic World Cup win. Since then, she has not looked back.
The consistency was there, but the wait for the three-figure mark continued. On Sunday, it all came to an end as she smashed an unbeaten 49-ball 100 on the last ball of the innings. The emotions after, as she removed the helmet and teared up, told the story. It was a big weight of the shoulder for the 22-year-old who's fast-becoming one of the prominent figures in the team.
Now, the team management would hope that she goes on to double down in the final against Sri Lanka on Tuesday to secure the gold medal.
Brief scores: India 195/4 in 20 ovs (Shafali 100, Harmanpreet 40; Sanjida 1/25) bt Bangladesh 81 in 15.4 ovs (Dilara 27; Deepti 3/7, Nandni 3/25).