Leg-spinner Poonam Yadav bowled India to an upset 17-run win over defending champions Australia in the opening game of the women's Twenty20 World Cup in Sydney on Friday.
India were restricted to 132 for four off their 20 overs before a half-century from Australian opener Alyssa Healy appeared to have the home team on track for victory.
But then Yadav was brought into the attack. Voted India's top female player last year, she bagged the crucial wickets of Healy, Rachael Haynes and Ellyse Perry, and was desperately unlucky not to grab a hat-trick in her match-winning 4-19.
"It is a great relief to win, I'm really happy for my girls," said Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur.
"We knew this track is something where we could do well. If we could get to 140, we thought the bowlers can do the job. A bowler like Poonam is someone who leads from the front," she added.
It was a big win for India, with only the top two from each of the two five-team groups making the knockout phase. A dangerous New Zealand, along with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, are also in their group.
"They started off well and put us under the pump. At the halfway mark, 133 to chase, we thought we were in a pretty good place to win," said Australian captain Meg Lanning.
"Unfortunately we didn't quite execute with the bat today. There was a lack of partnerships through the middle and India bowled extremely well. We came into this match as ready as we could have been but India outplayed us a little bit."
Lanning's team, four-time World Cup winners, were rarely tested through the second half of 2019 when they whitewashed an injury-ravaged West Indies and a developing Sri Lanka team in the short format.
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