India-W vs Australia-W: “ Harry Di has a golden arm,” says Deepti Sharma as skipper Harmanpreet takes key wickets on Day 3

Controversy erupted at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday as Australia captain Alyssa Healy deflected a throw from the bowler – India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur – resulting in the ball racing to the ropes.

The Indian camp appealed against Healy for obstructing the field which was rejected by on-field umpires Anil Chaudhary and N Janani.

Though it led to some sort of verbal confrontation between the players, Deepti Sharma downplayed the issue, saying that such things happen in the heat of the moment. 

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“All those things happen in cricket in a heat of the moment. Our focus was only on taking wickets and bowling dot balls. I do not have much to say on that,” she said after the day’s play.

Coming into the attack in the final session of day three, Harmanpreet claimed two key wickets of Tahlia McGrath and Healy, allowing India to come back into the game. And, Deepti admitted that those wickets certainly boosted the team’s morale.

“Harry  di has a golden arm. She always takes a wicket whenever she comes onto 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,” Deepti said, “We also got some momentum…”

After a batting debacle in the first innings, Australia looked sorted in the second essay and made the Indian bowlers toil for most part of the day. 

“We were bowling in our areas, but 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,” Deepti said.

“There were more patches from one side and we were hoping that the bowlers would get more help and turn, but the wicket was on the slower side and we did not get much help either,” she said.