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Titas Sadhu was playing her second international match for the senior team when India faced Sri Lanka in the Asian Games final last September. Just 18 years old at the time, the right-arm fast bowler returned with sensational figures of 3/6 and helped her team win the gold medal. This performance came eight months after she won the Player of the Match award in the final of the ICC Women’s Under-19 T20 World Cup.
Competing in his fifth T20I, Titas once again performed brilliantly and helped India defeat Australia by nine wickets in the opening game of the three-match series at the DY Patil Stadium here on Friday. The Bengal fast bowler took 4 wickets for 17 runs as the visitors were all out for 141 after being invited to bat first. From there, it was performances from Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana that took the hosts to 145/1 in 17.4 overs.
During the previous only Test and ODI series between the two teams, a familiar sight during India’s training session was bowling coach Troy Cooley having an animated conversation with Tittas. The 58-year-old, who was previously the bowling coach of the England and Australia men’s teams, would stand at the top of the run-up and share insights after each delivery. Armed with those invaluable lessons, the youngster showed on Friday that he is capable of defeating the best.
Australia got off to a good start with Beth Mooney striking the ball cleanly and taking the score to 26/0 in three overs. But then Titus joined the attack and such was the collapse that the visitors lost four wickets for just five runs. Mooney was deceived by a leg cutter, while Tahlia McGrath and Ash Gardner edged the ball, which went wide. It was an amazing spell with the new ball. He showed great skill and discipline and gave a blow from which the Australian team could never recover.
From 33/4 at the end of the powerplay, Australia made a comeback thanks to in-form Phoebe Litchfield and the ever-reliable Ellyse Perry, who added 79 runs for the fifth wicket. Litchfield, who scored a century in the third ODI three days ago, was aggressive and hit some brilliant strokes in her innings of 49 runs in 32 balls. However, his dismissal in the 15th over marked the beginning of another decline for Australia as they lost. His last six wickets fell for 29 runs.
Off-spinners Deepti Sharma and Shreyanka Patil were the other major contributors with the ball for India. However, in terms of fielding, there was not much improvement from the ODI series. Captain Harmanpreet Kaur did well taking four routine catches, but three catches were dropped by others along with several misfields.
India’s opening batsmen, while chasing the target, did not let Australia know about it and remained aggressive from the beginning. Smriti hit three fours in the first over, while Shafali, who was dropped for the last two ODIs, showed how devastating she can be after a nervous start. The left-right duo stitched a 137-run partnership for the first wicket and almost handed Australia their second 10-wicket defeat in T20Is.
Although she was not able to convert her starts in the ODI series, Smriti showed glimpses of her best and a big innings could be expected from her. This time, she was in complete control and hit seven fours and a six in her inning of 54 runs in 52 balls. However, the biggest positive for India was Shafali’s return to form. The 19-year-old showed composure in his shot selection and kept India ahead at the asking rate throughout with his powerful strokeplay. She scored 66 runs off 44 balls with the help of six fours and three sixes and ensured that she remained unbeaten to end the game with Jemimah Rodrigues.
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