On Sunday, Deepti Sharma, one of the world’s premier all-rounders, was vindicated as her career-best figures of 5 for 10 in 4 overs contributed largely to India’s 64-run win over arch-rivals Pakistan in their T20 World Cup opener. Deepti, the off-spin bowling all-rounder, was the star in weaving a vicious spin web as Pakistan collapsed from 75 for 3 to 106 all out in 17 overs. Smriti Mandhana‘s fluent 68 and Richa Ghosh‘s late assault of 34 had earlier carried India to 170/6 in 20 overs.
Deepti’s five wickets took her tally to 166, the highest in women’s T20Is. During the course of the match, she became only the second women’s player, after jhulan Goswami, to take over 350 wickets in international cricket.
Deepti Sharma was never overtly worried during the first part of 2026 when she was not getting wickets, as she knew that her time would come sooner or later. Earlier in the year, Deepti had horrible tours of Australia and South Africa, where she neither scored runs nor got many wickets except in odd games.
“I wasn’t worried when I didn’t get wickets because I knew when the right time would come, I would step up,” Deepti said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
In fact, Deepti’s stupendous record in ICC tournaments continued, and the turn on offer from Edgbaston proved important. “I like these kinds of wickets because there was turn on offer. I varied my pace. Because the ball was turning, I had to be slow in the air and believe in myself and bowl in the right areas.
“But I want to specially mention the partnership (91 runs) between Smriti (Mandhana) and Harry di (Harmanpreet Kaur),” Deepti said.
Indian skipper Harmanpreet was all praise for Mandhana and Deepti for performing on a big day.
“Whenever we need them (Mandhana and Sharma), they are always there to push the team.” Harmanpreet said there were no demons on the pitch.
“It was a decent pitch. Initially, we unnecessarily put pressure on ourselves. But when Smriti and I were batting, we tried to control the game.” Asked if Richa Ghosh could have been sent ahead of Bharti Fulmali, Harmanpreet replied: “If it is in my hands, I would love to send her on the first ball. But she has a role to play, and she is doing it well.” With Australia and South Africa also in the group, Harmanpreet is happy that they logged a big win against Pakistan.
“Every league game is important, and I’m very happy with how we went about it.” Pakistan skipper Fatima Sana felt that their batting was pretty disappointing and the bowling also faltered towards the end.
“The batting was very disappointing. We need to step up as we have a long way to go. In bowling, we were good till the last few overs, but we got sloppy.
“The one extra fielder coming in also affected us. It is a young side, and they will learn,” the Pakistan skipper said in a dejected tone