In a historic moment for India, the women’s blind cricket team beat Australia in the final of the ISBA World Games 2023 to claim a gold medal on Saturday, August 26. Indian women’s team thrashed mighty Australia by nine wickets on the DLS method in a T20 match at England’s Edgbaston.
Cricket is included in the IBSA World Games for the first time and India’s both men’s and women’s blind teams reached finals to make history. Now the Women in Blue make India further proud with a gold medal on the world stages with a dominant impressive all-round performance.
Australia managed to score only 115 runs for eight wickets while batting first. Middle-order batter Lewis scored 29 runs off 28 balls and Webeck top-scored with unbeaten 30 runs off 26 balls to help Australia score a challenging total. For India, Deepika, Davis and Tudu took one wicket each while the remaining five wickets came through run-out dismissals.
Meanwhile, the rain interrupted the game when India started their chase. India lost opener Neelappa on just eight runs but Deepika scored 18* off 11 balls to put 43 runs on the scoreboard in 3.3 overs before rain stopped the play. India won the game on the DLS method and wrote their name in the history book with a maiden gold medal.
AUSTRALIA VI WOMEN PLAYING XI: CB Buakhao, C Casey, J Neumann (c & wk), C Lewis, A Malone, C Webeck, A Roe, I McKenna, T Whelan, J Parry, D Ferris
INDIA VI WOMEN PLAYING XI: Varsha U (c), V Ravani, S Das, P Tudu, G Neelappa, B Hansda, S Davis, Deepika TC, P Saren, S Patel, M Satyavathi (wk)