The Australian women’s team won their fifth T20 world title after defeating Indian women in the final at the MCG by 85 runs. The performance was of total dominance and resulted in a much-deserved win for Meg Lanning and her troops.

After Alyssa Healy (75) and Beth Mooney (78*) added 115 runs and took Australia to 184/4 in 20 overs; the only problem for them was tackling the threat of Indian opener Shafali Verma, who despite being 16-years-old, has made the cricketing world sit up and take notice.

She had made 163 runs in 5 matches in the tournament at a strike rate of 158.25 with the best score of 47 and was the reason India managed to put up defendable totals on the board in the league stages. She was the biggest threat to Australian women and getting rid of the new no.1 ranked T20I batswoman was the first and utmost importance for the home side.

That’s what Megan Schutt did on the third ball, as she had Verma caught by Healy for 2 runs and the tone of the match was set then and there. Schutt picked four wickets and Jonassen picked three as India managed just 99 runs and lost the final.

Shafali knew that the onus was on her to give India a blazing start to her team in chase of 185 runs and was inconsolable as she watched the match slip out of India’s hand and they moved towards defeat.

After Australia picked the final wicket and their team raced onto the field to celebrate the win, Shafali was seen crying at the loss, while being consoled first by captain Harmanpreet Kaur and then by Harleen Deol.   

Here is the video:

Even the Twitterverse felt for the youngster and asked her to be strong and mentioned that it was just a part and parcel of the game.

Here are some spirit-lifting tweets by Twitterati for Shafali: