IND-W v AUS-W: We needed a magical bowler, says Deepti Sharma after Harmanpreet bags two late wickets

Mumbai: With the Australian batters curbing their aggression and batting solidly on the third day of the one-off Women’s Test, India needed a moment of inspiration and change the momentum of the game.

Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur brought herself into the attack around the 72nd over and with her potent off-spin, claimed two late wickets to pull India back into the game.

“She has a golden arm. She always takes a wicket whenever she comes on to bowl. I remember she had taken a wicket right when she came into the attack in the 50-overs World Cup in New Zealand. She is always ready (to bowl). Everyone was bowling but we needed a magical bowler who could get a wicket since the partnership had lasted for a long time. We also got some momentum,” said fellow off-spinner Deepti Sharma after India broke Australia’s momentum to restrict them to 233/5 in the second innings on Saturday.

India had gained a lead of 187 runs on the first innings after posting 406 early on Saturday as Deepti Sharma top-scored with 78 runs. Deepti later bowled 19 overs without any success.

Deepti said credit should be given to Australia for batting well in the second innings.

“They did not play their usually aggressive game, which they had in the first innings and it helped them as well. It could be easy and at the same time difficult to start hitting right from the start.

“I would not say it was difficult because we were bowling in our areas. They are also bound to do well and they did play well for which they should be credited. We kept patience, like when you need to be patient while batting you have to be patient while bowling too,” said Deepti in a press conference at the end of the day.

She said it was important for them to build pressure on the Australian batters as India’s first innings had ended early on Saturday. She said the ball was keeping low more than on Day 1.

“The ball was keeping low on the third day compared to the first day. It was not that challenging, let’s see, the wicket should help the bowlers more tomorrow,” she added.

She said there were more patches from one side and the Indian bowlers were hoping that they would get more help and turn. “But the wicket was on the slower side and we did not get much help,” she added.

Asked why she resorted to bowling from around the wicket, which negated the lbw decisions as the ball would pitch outside the off-stump, Deepti said she tried that to bowl more dot bowls and build pressure on the Australian batters.

“When you bowl from over the wickets the chances are higher to get leg-before. But the plan was to bowl around the wicket, the plan was changed to see if something could be done (from that angle). We wanted to bowl more dots and build pressure on the batters,” she said.

–IANS