# Sports

Shafali Verma has been given free licence to play her fearless brand of cricket: Shikha Pandey

The teenager was once again the cynosure of all eyes on Monday against Bangladesh as she smashed a 17-ball 39, including four sixes, to give India the impetus to reach 142 runs — the highest total of the T20 World Cup so far.

SNS | New Delhi | February 25, 2020 9:41 am

Shafali Verma of India plays a shot during the Twenty20 women's World Cup cricket match between India and Bangladesh in Perth on February 24, 2020. (Photo by TONY ASHBY / AFP)

Heaping praises on India Women opener Shafali Verma, India fast bowler Shikha Pandey said that the team has given the 16-year-old full freedom to play her shots.

In the opening match of the ongoing World Cup against Australia, Shafali had scored 29 runs off 15 balls to give India a blazing start in a match they won by 17 runs. The teenager was once again the cynosure of all eyes on Monday against Bangladesh as she smashed a 17-ball 39, including four sixes, to give India the impetus to reach 142 runs — the highest total of the T20 World Cup so far — in their stipulated quota of 20 overs.

“We haven’t asked her (Verma) to change anything. She’s been given free licence to play her fearless brand of cricket. She’s amazing. At 16, I hadn’t even started training to become a cricketer. I’m very pleased to have such young fearless players in our team. It’s amazing to see them doing what they did for us,” said Shikha as quoted by IANS.

Despite putting their all on the field, the Bangladesh Women remained 18 runs short of the target and India registered their second win on the trot. Shafali was declared the Player of the Match for her fiery knock.

“There’s no baggage, that’s the biggest thing, and they express themselves so well in the team. We thought we had a great score on the board to defend because we believe in our bowling department. We knew it would be a tough target for them to chase,” Shikha said.