VADODARA: On the eve of the third Women’s ODI between India and West Indies at the Kotambi Stadium here, India’s bowling coach Aavishkar Salvi had hailed Deepti Sharma as a “modern-day legend” and said, “When it matters the most, she has always delivered for India. That’s her USP.”
On Friday, the off-spinning allrounder showed why Salvi, and India’s head coach Amol Muzumdar, who had termed her as ‘Ben Stokes’ last year after she produced a match-winning performance in a one-off Test against England at the DY Patil Stadium, rater her so highly.
Sizzling with both bat and ball in the dead rubber, Deepti took six for 31 in 10 overs to skittle out West Indies for merely 162 in 38.5 overs, and then chipped in with a vital, unbeaten 39 (48b, 3×4, 1×6) to help India pull off a tricky chase on a pitch on which the ball was holding up a bit.
Fired by Deepti’s excellent all-round show, India downed the visitors by five wickets and pulled off a 3-0 clean sweep in the home ODI series. The flawless performance will help India, who now take on Ireland in a three-match WODI series from January 10 next year in Rajkot, wipe off the scars of a 3-0 blanking at the hands of the Aussies Down Under earlier this month.
In her typically belligerent style, ‘keeper-batter Richa Ghosh provided the perfect finishing touch, smashing leg-spinner Afy Fletcher for back-to-back sixes down the ground and to the cow corner with a slog sweep.
Choosing to bat first strangely in conditions where the ball was moving around menacingly in the heavy air prevailing here in these conditions at this time of the year, West Indies collapsed to 9 for three in the fifth over as seamer Renuka Thakur, who has had an excellent series (picked up five for 29 in the second WODI), wreaked havoc again, taking four for 29 in 9.5 overs.
