Women's T20 World Cup: How have spinners orchestrated India’s impressive campaign!

The Indian women spin battery spearheaded by vastly experienced leg-spinner Poonam Yadav, left-arm spinning combo of Rajeshwari Gayakwad and Radha Yadav and off-spinner Deepti Sharma – such has been the impact of this spin quartet that the Indian eves did not even have to summon the spin bowling services of skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, who bowls regularly in this format of the game as well as someone like Veda Krishnamurthy, who also chips in the spin bowling department.

If leggie Poonam Yadav played the masterstroke to shape India’s wins over Australia and Bangladesh with returns of 4-19 and 3-18 in the first two games, it was the turn of left-arm spinner Radha Sharma to show her wares – the youngster who did not feature in the first two games, tightened the screws against New Zealand with frugal bowling returns before going on to snaffle her career-best figures of 4 for 23 to orchestrate her team’s impressive victory over Sri Lanka in the final league tie.

Poonam Yadav (Image: Twitter/Women CricZone)

The dominance of the Indian spinners in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup can be gauged from the fact that our spinners snared 21 of the 33 wickets in four league games – this is not to undermine the efforts of our seamers, who took ninewickets and three being run-outs – in fact, seamer Shikha Pandey has proved handy with the ball, grabbing wickets in every game, including a crucial three-wicket haul against Australia.

Even at the 2016 Women’s T20 World Cup in India, the hosts may have failed to make it to the semifinals, but there was no stopping the spinners as they snaffled 20 out of the 22 wickets taken by the team. Interestingly, skipper Harmanpreet Kaur led the wicket-taking efforts, snaring 7 wickets, while both left-arm spinner Ekta Bisht and Anuja Patil grabbed 5 wickets each – Poonam Yadav picked up 2 wickets while Radha Yadav bagged one wicket.

Three-time World-Cupper and former Indian left-arm spin bowling stalwart Neetu David believes the stupendous efforts of the Indian spinners are a good augury for Indian women’s cricket. “Our spinners have been fantastic in the T20 World Cup and I have no doubts that our girls will make us proud by winning the T20 World Cup,” gushes Neetu, who was the country’s top wicket-taker with 20 scalps at the 2005 ODI World Cup in South Africa, where the Indian eves reached the ODI World Cup final for the first-time ever.

Neetu, who had also featured in the 1997 and 2000 ODI World Cups in India and New Zealand respectively, attributed the splendid showing of the spinners to improved control over flighted deliveries. “It’s so important to control your flight or else you can be taken to the cleaners. Our spin bowlers have exercised great control over their flight that has spelt the doom of the opposition in the T20 World Cup.”

“Look Poonam’s loop – she has been outstanding; Rajeshwari uses the crease well and delivers quicker flight balls while Radha has been able to get the ball into the batswoman when the latter is expecting for a turn. Deepti is also good with her sharp turn – our overall spin bowling has a nice overall package for the opposition”, quips the 42-year-old former bowler, who also holds the country’s best bowling figures in women Tests with 8-53 against England at Jamshedpur in the mid-nineties.