'Ball of the century, women's cricket edition' - Shikha Pandey's jaffa bamboozles Alyssa Healy

Indian pacer Shikha Pandey left Australia’s Alyssa Healy flabbergasted when she cleaned her up during the second T20I between the two teams at the Metricon Stadium in Gold Coast on October 9.

Healy had smashed a boundary on the first ball of Australia’s response but Pandey had the last laugh as she rattled her stumps. It was a length delivery pitched outside the off-stump that jagged back in sharply to catch Healy completely off guard as she failed to manoeuvre it and walked back for 4 as Pandey roared into jubilation.

Former Indian cricketer Wasim Jaffer went on to term the delivery as the “Ball of the century, women’s cricket edition”.

Earlier, India were restricted for 118/9 with only Pooja Vastrakar (37 off 26) and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur (28 off 20) managing to create some impact as Tayla Vlaeminck and Sophie Molineux picked two wickets each, giving only 29 runs in their seven overs combined.

After the early departure of Healy, Beth Mooney (34 off 36) and skipper Meg Lanning (15 off 20) patiently rebuilt the innings before Tahlia McGrath’s 33-ball 42 sealed them the game.

“We were 20 runs short, but the wicket wasn’t an easy one to bat on. We had a good game. We didn’t give them easy runs. We fought till the end. Would want to take the team to take more responsibility,” Indian skipper Kaur said post-match. “Pooja has the talent and she gets us runs and wickets whenever we need. That’s what we expect from her. We know Australia side is good. You always need to come out with good plans and a good approach against them.”

“We bowled better. I think it was our best performance with the ball in the series. Tahlia McGrath was wonderful and helped us. A fair bit of swing around. But then it gets the bowlers in the game, and that makes it exciting,” Lanning said.

Having won the ODIs 2-1 and drawn the one-off Test, Australia have gained an unassailable lead in the three-match T20I series courtesy of their four-wicket win. The previous encounter at the same venue was washed out due to persistent rain. The final fixture is scheduled to be played on October 10.

Unreeeeeeal! 😱 How far did that ball move? #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/D3g7jqRXWK

— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) October 9, 2021

Ball of the century, women's cricket edition! Take a bow Shikha Pandey🙌🏻 #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/WjaixlkjIp

— Wasim Jaffer (@WasimJaffer14) October 9, 2021