Image Source- ICC
Pooja Vastrakar may have been viewing the Asian Games
on television at home. She was only first identified as a team reserve who
would not be travelling; she would instead return home following a week-long
pre-departure camp in Bengaluru. Vastrakar’s trip, however, moved from Indore
to Hangzhou when Anjali Sarvani arrived injured a day before takeoff.
Vastrakar demonstrated on Sunday a week later why she
ought to have been taken into consideration in the first place. Her T20I
career-best performance of 4 for 17 helped India defeat Bangladesh for 51 in
the semifinals, putting them in contention for the gold medal. The victor of
the second semi-final between Sri Lanka and Pakistan will advance to Monday’s
final.
Harmanpreet Kaur’s two-match suspension, which
incidentally was granted to her following a contentious series against
Bangladesh in July, ended with Sunday’s game, thus India will go into that
encounter knowing their normal captain will be available.
Vastrakar demonstrated that she is a multi-talented
player by executing nip-backers, outswingers, and hard lengths with the new
ball. She also had two wickets with two different deliveries in the first over
alone. Shamima Sultana was trapped lbw playing all around one that hit the seam
and jagged back to smash her below-the-knee roll, and Shathi Rani was caught
behind on the first ball of the game after being persuaded to drive an
away-swinger.
But Bangladesh was not just hindered by poor shot
selection. They ran similarly poorly between the wickets, which led to two run
outs that shouldn’t have happened. One of Bangladesh’s most talented batsmen,
Nigar Sultana, was dismissed while trying to hit a single to extra cover when
Devika Vaidya swooped in to deliver a direct hit at the bowler’s end.
Two balls later, Ritu Moni dabbed one to short third,
where Kanika Ahuja launched a direct hit at the striker’s end, and Fahima
Khatun was run out without facing a ball. Had she dived, Khatun could have
survived; instead, she didn’t. Bangladesh was in danger of losing the over at
25 for 6. Bangladesh huffed and puffed above 50 earlier with the aid of Nahida
Akter and Moni but they folded in the 18th over, with five of India’s
bowlers finishing among the wickets.