16-year-old Shafali Verma, who on Thursday scored 46 runs off 34 balls against New Zealand in the ongoing ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, has now become the player with the highest T20I strike rate in women’s cricket.
In her 17-match career, she has amassed a total of 438 runs at a staggering strike rate if 147.97, surpassing Chloe Tryon’s rate of 138.31 and Alyssa Healey’s 129.66.
Highest career strike rates in women’s T20Is (min. 200 runs)
1️⃣ Shafali Verma – 438 runs at 147.97
2️⃣ Chloe Tryon – 722 runs at 138.31
3️⃣ Alyssa Healy – 1,875 runs at 129.66The 16-year-old is top of the tree 🌲#INDvNZ | #T20WorldCup pic.twitter.com/GaVkk5rGOk
— T20 World Cup (@T20WorldCup) February 27, 2020
Verma’s blitzkrieg knock at the top helped India post a commendable total of 133 in their third league match of this year’s quadrennial event.
Riding on her stupendous efforts the women in blue eventually came on top to keep their winning streak intact as Verma was rightly awarded the ‘Player of the Match’.
Getting an invitation to bat first, India scored 133 runs at the loss of 8 wickets in their allotted 20 overs at Junction Oval in Melbourne and held their nerves to register a slender win of 4 runs.
In their reply, the White Ferns found themselves reeling at 34 for 3 in 8.1 overs with skipper Sophie Devine and Suzie Bates back to the hut. However, Maddy Green (24) and Katey Martin (25) took the Kiwis out of hot waters.
With the victory, the Indian team became the first team to enter the semifinal of the ongoing World Cup. They will next face Sri Lanka on February 29 at the Junction Oval in Melbourne.