From the diary of a cricketer

India faced Zimbabwe in their final group match of the Women's World Cup Qualifiers and duly trounced them by nine wickets at the P. Sara Oval on Monday (February 13). There were as many as three changes in the Indian XI with Mona Meshram, Rajeshwari Gayakwad and Soni Yadav coming in for Thirushkamini, Deepti Sharma and Shikha Pandey (all presumably 'rested' ahead of the Super 6 stage). Zimbabwe were bowled out for a paltry 60 and India chased it down with 41 overs to spare—well before lunch. The leggie Poonam Yadav may have missed the first match of the tournament, but ever since her return to the playing XI against Thailand, she has made the most of every opportunity with the ball. The diminutive leg-spinner from Uttar Pradesh outfoxed the Zimbabwean batters with her loop, turn, variation and accuracy. She used her newly developed googly to good effect, picking up five wickets for only 19 runs, taking her tournament tally to 10 wickets in three games. The ‘keep...

Match two of the World Cup Qualifiers for India and another easy victory. This time, they trounced Ireland by 125 runs at the P. Sara Oval in Colombo on Friday (February 10), but to be honest, I think India will be disappointed with the way they played. A solid opening stand was followed by some tame batting at the back- end of the innings that took some sheen off an easy win. The openers For the second match in succession Deepti Sharma held her own as an opener, scoring a fluent half-century, but this time she had the company of MD Thirushkamini (who replaced Mona Mesham from the first game), the 26 year-old left-hander, who has been in and out of the playing XI for the last 12 months. The pair strung together a 174-run partnership against an Irish attack that didn’t really look like they had the firepower to take wickets. At the start, it was Thirush who played the more attacking role with Deepti taking her time to settle in. Once the 19-year old reached her half-century she b...

India began their quest for World Cup qualification with a resounding 114-run win over Sri Lanka at the P. Sara Oval in Colombo on Tuesday (February 7). Devika Vaidya, Deepti Sharma and Mithali Raj shone with the bat, playing vital knocks to propel India to 259 for 4 in 50 overs. The Deepti-Devika partnership helped India build a solid base from which Raj, Harmanpreet Kaur and Veda Krishnamurthy could launch. The match itself was a pretty lop-sided contest, with the hosts slowly losing their way from the middle of the Indian innings. Although their chase started promisingly, with a 40-run opening partnership between Chamari Atapattu and Eshani Lokusuriyage, the fight fizzled out slowly as they stuttered their way to 145 for 8. The star India pulled a surprise in the fifth over of the day when they sent DevikaVaidya in at No.3, ahead of Mithali Raj. Whether it was because there were two inswingers operating or because Devika was just hitting the ball well in the nets, we will n...