VIDEO | Pooja Vastrakar six breaks the scoreboard with a humongous six

03/15/2018

How often do we see sixes breaking things at cricket grounds? In the second ODI of the India-Australia women’s game, 18-year-old Pooja Vastrakar found a new thing to break as she completely shattered the manual scoreboard with a massive six over mid-wicket off left-arm spinner Jess Jonassen.

After a crushing loss in the first game of the 3-match series, India were aiming to bounce back and stay alive in the series. After being put into bat, Australia started pretty well as Nicole Bolton, who scored 84, put on 54 runs with Alyssa Healy for the first wicket and 76 runs with skipper Meg Lanning for the second wicket.

However, it was fifties from Ellyse Perry (70 in 70 balls) and Beth Mooney (56 in 40 balls) that propelled Australia to a score of 288. They shared a 96-run stand for the 5th wicket and helped the visitors post an above-par total.

Chasing a big total, India were off to a slowish start as they reached 17 in the first 5 overs. Smriti Mandana was looking good, but Punam Raut was consuming a lot of deliveries at the other end. But in the second half of the powerplay, Mandana opened up and started finding the boundary regularly. Her attack helped India reach 44/0 in 10 overs. The 21-year-old left-hander continued scoring freely even after the field restrictions were lifted. She brought up her fifty in 41 balls and India were looking good in their chase.

However, Mandana’s dismissal in the 18th over derailed India’s chase. They lost 7 wickets for 82 runs in the next 18 overs. Most of the batters got starts but none of them batted till the end and converted it into a big one. At 170/7, the game looked gone. However, the crowd still got something to cheer about. Pooja Vastrakar, who had scored a valiant 51 which helped India post a total of 200 in the first ODI, came into bat at No. 9 in this game.

In the 40th over, Vastrakar hit Jess Jonassen for a massive six over mid-wicket. But that was not the surprise as the ball went straight into the manual scoreboard in the ground. On contact with the ball, the scoreboard completely fell apart as all the markers came off. The crowd which had gone quiet finally had something to cheer about. They enjoyed the six as much as Vastrakar and non-striker Shikha Pandey did.