Impressed by work ethic shown by Shafali Verma, states Danni Wyatt

Impressed by work ethic shown by Shafali Verma, states Danni Wyatt

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England's Danni Wyatt stated that she's been impressed by the work ethic shown by opener Shafali Verma and noted that the teen sensation comes very hard on herself when she fails. 16-year-old Shafali has scored 161 runs in four innings thus far in the ongoing ICC Women's T20 World Cup in Australia.

England opener Danni Wyatt heaped praises for India’s teenage sensation Shafali Verma, who has taken the world by storm with her ferocious hitting at the top. The 16-year-old has been in sensational form in the ongoing Women's World T20, scoring 161 runs at a strike rate of 161 in the. Shafali has impressed with her cameos, demonstrating proficiency against both pace and spin, combining deft applications with uninhibited savagery.

Danni Wyatt, who partnered her during her innings against Trailblazers, also knows that mind games are Australia's best shot at stopping India's teenage star Shafali Verma in Sunday's ICC Women's T20 World Cup final. 

"It's obvious what her weaknesses are and Shafali knows what they are the Aussies have tried to bowl to those areas in the past. You've got to play a few mind games with her and hope she spoons one up. When she fails, she's so hard on herself,” said Wyatt, as quoted by Cricket Next.

“I just tell her to relax and that it's only cricket. When you're opening the batting in T20, it can be brutal because your role is to go hard and you're always going to fail. She's very hard on herself when she does.”

Shafali Verma was definitely the brightest talent scouted by BCCI in 2019. She was fast-tracked into mainstream T20 cricket after a 38-ball 49 against an international-standard Railways attack, followed by a 56-ball 128 (116 of which came in fours and sixes) against Nagaland — all of which was scored inside 15 overs. Barely 15, she was included in the Velocity squad in the Women's T20 Challenge.

The 16-year-old's story runs parallel to the growth of women's cricket in her country. Her talent was honed by coaches, analysts and physios at Shri Ram Narain CC, whose eyes opened to the women's game in 2008. When Shafali nets, she nets for two hours straight. And it only took one session of brutal hitting against boy bowlers to convince Wyatt she is a phenomenon.

"Even before the session, she'd go to the nets for extra practice against our quickest male bowlers. She'd bat for about an hour. She'd say 'yeah, come bowl' and go 'bang, bang.' And I went 'who's that?' She had an extra 20 minutes to do some drills after. I couldn't believe she was 15 when someone told me. She knew exactly what she wanted to get out of that session. At aged 15, that's pretty smart,” she added.

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