Shafali Verma swung her bat at Shimako Kato’s full length delivery, sending the ball soaring over for a six off the last ball of the fifth over.
With that, and expectedly so, the Indian women’s cricket team wrapped up an easy eight-wicket win over hosts Japan to stroll into the semifinal of the 20th Asian Games at the Korogi Athletic Park in Nagoya on Friday.
With an obvious intention to close out the proceedings early, captain Harmanpreet Kaur chose to bowl after winning the toss. But Japanese openers Haruna Iwasaki (10) and Ayaa Kato-Stafford (25) began by putting up an unexpected resistance.
With around 50-80 fans in the stands, every defence, run and an occasional boundary was enthusiastically cheered as the Iwasaki and Kato-Stafford added 24 runs in 38 balls. Just when the two were beginning to frustrate the Indian camp, Sree Charani claimed Haruna’s wicket in the seventh over to begin India’s onslaught. Charani went on to strike thrice more.
Whatever little the rest of the players from the hosts’ team did, it was only enough to carry them to 57 runs before being bowled out. But the team with little cricketing pedegree, playing out almost 20 overs (19.5) brought smiles on their fans’ faces.
Off-spinner Shreyank Patil made her comeback after missing the Asia Cup with an injury. The Bengaluru bowler bowled 3.5 miserly overs besides taking a wicket (8/1).
India opener Shafali was accompanied by Gunalan Kamalini with an eye on quick finish. Japan struck through Nohoha Yasumoto who sent Kamalini for a duck. Bharti Fulmali followed after adding six runs with the scoreboard reading 24-2.
What followed were some big hitting from Shafali (40 not out) and the in-coming Richa Ghosh (12 not out), enough to get the job done and get some extra training time before taking on Bangladesh in the last-four encounter on Sunday.
Brief scores: Japan: 57 all out in 19.5 overs (Ayaka Kato-Stafford 25; Shree Charani 4-10) lt to India: 59/2 in 5 overs (Shafali Verma n.o 40). India’s next match: Semifinal vs Bangladesh on Sept 20.