All-female match officials appointed for ICC U19 Women's T20 World Cup Final
Potchefstroom, Jan 28, 2023, IANS
The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Saturday announced that they have appointed an all-female match officials panel for the final of the ICC U19 Women's T20 World Cup, to be held in JB Marks Oval on Sunday.
Vanessa De Silva will oversee the final as Match referee, while Candace La Borde and Sarah Dambanevana will be the on-field umpires. Dedunu De Silva will be TV Umpire while Lisa McCabe is the fourth umpire.
After two weeks of action that has featured 16 teams, the inaugural edition of the Women's U19 T20 World Cup with Sunday's final between India and England set to begin from 13:45 local time (5:15pm IST) in Potchefstroom.
India's brilliant performance against New Zealand in the first semi-final and win by eight wickets on Friday saw them seal their place in the final. Player of the Match, leg-spinner Parshavi bowled an amazing spell of 3/20 in her four overs and helped India restrict New Zealand to a mere 107 in 20 overs.
In reply, opener Shweta Sehrawat asserted her run-making prowess by hitting her third half-century in the competition and remained unbeaten on 61 off 45 balls to complete the chase in 14.2 overs.
In the second semi-final, England triumphed in an incredible thriller against Australia, winning by just three runs, in the second semi-final to progress to the title clash. With their powerful batting line-up having faltered by posting 99 all out and leaving Australia exactly 100 runs at under a run a ball to win, an intense effort in the field and with the ball helped England defend a modest target.
Player of the match Hannah Baker led the charge, with the leg-spinner's beguiling spell fetching her figures of 3/10 off four overs, with skipper Grace Scrivens supporting her with figures of 2/8 off 3.4 overs and getting the last wicket to fall by trapping Maggie Clark lbw for a duck.
The low run rate in the chase and Amy Smith's run-a-ball 26 (three fours) kept Australia in the game, but once she holed out to long-off off Josie Groves' bowling with the score on 77, England had all but set a date with India in Sunday's final at Potchefstroom.