Hangzhou Asian Games | ‘Super Sub’ Vastrakar takes Indian women’s cricket team to final

Pooja Vastrakar bowled a sharp and incisive spell to take the Indian women’s cricket team to its maiden Asian Games final

Pooja Vastrakar bowled a sharp and incisive spell to take the Indian women's cricket team to its maiden Asian Games final, crushing Bangladesh by eight wickets in a lopsided semi-final here on September 24.

Right arm seamer Vastrakar, who replaced Anjali Sarvani in the squad just before leaving India, had career-best figures of 4/17 in four overs as Bangladesh were bowled out for 51 in 17.5 overs — their lowest ever T20 score against the neighbours.

Vastrakar and her young new-ball partner Titas Sadhu (1/10 in 4 overs) extracted all the juice available from the deck as they bowled quick, with the bounce on offer also helping.

Only skipper Nigar Sultana (12) was able to reach double figures for Bangladesh.

The chase of 52 was a cakewalk as it was achieved in only 8.2 overs. Kanika Ahuja (1 not out) and Jemimah Rodrigues (20 not out) took India home despite losing skipper Smriti Mandhana (7) and Shafali (17) cheaply.

It was also sweet revenge for the women's team, who were forced to play the second game on the trot without their regular skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, who is serving a two-match suspension.

Harmanpreet was suspended due to her angry public outburst and criticism of the quality of Bangladeshi umpiring while playing against them in an away series a few months back.