Cricket News: How India's exciting victory over Australia will help the Women's IPL
The second T20I of the five-match series between the India women's cricket team and Australia was, in many ways, a historic match and a big win for the Women in Blue.
Smriti Mandhana scored a fighting 79 at the top of the order.It saw them fight back hard to win a thrilling Super Over against the gold standard of women's cricket and snap Australia's 16-match winning streak.
While perhaps not as monumental, it does bring back memories of when India beat Kolkata in 2001 in that famous Test match and snapped the Aussies' winning streak.
But perhaps more importantly, it does something the BCCI would no doubt be pleased about – it gives a massive boost to the soon-to-be formalized Women's Indian Premier League (IPL) that will begin in 2023.
The tournament exists in all but name at this point, ever since it was ratified in the BCCI's Annual General Meeting (AGM).
And recently, the board formally started the tender process for inviting bids for the media rights of the Women's IPL.
So what is certain at this point is that the tournament is happening. But what's less certain is how well fans will receive the tournament.
It's no secret that India is a cricket-loving nation, so any cricketing action can and will always be welcome by fans and experts alike.
But at the same time, it is also no secret that the women's game lags far behind the men's game in India – and in more ways than one.
While the men's team can and will often sell out stadiums whenever they play, the women's team struggles to generate the same kind of support more often than not.
This prompted the BCCI to make fan entry accessible for the second T20I on Sunday, which proved to be a genius move since the match was then played in front of a sellout capacity crowd.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">What an unbelievable match! <br>First defeat for Australia in T20I this year and in such a fashion...well played <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TeamIndia?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TeamIndia</a> 👌♥️<a href="https://twitter.com/mandhana_smriti?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@mandhana_smriti</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/TheShafaliVerma?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TheShafaliVerma</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/13richaghosh?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@13richaghosh</a> take a bow! 👏<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/INDvAUS?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#INDvAUS</a> <a href="https://t.co/0yc2cvXH8L">pic.twitter.com/0yc2cvXH8L</a></p>— DK (@DineshKarthik) <a href="https://twitter.com/DineshKarthik/status/1601986285727465472?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 11, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
And what a match they witnessed. The fans who got into the stadium saw firsthand some truly explosive batting from the Indian team, not least from vice-captain Smriti Mandhana.
Mandhana scored a fighting 79 at the top of the order, which played a crucial role in India drawing the game. And she was in her element even during the Super Over.
She came out and started whacking boundaries for fun, bringing the crowd to their feet as they cheered louder and louder in expectation of an India win.
And that is precisely what they got, as the team managed to defend 20 runs and draw the series level at one apiece with three games to go.
The promise of more such activities will make it easier for fans who have only started taking women's cricket seriously in the last decade to give the tournament a chance.
And if the top Indian players like Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur, Jemimah Rodrigues, Renuka Sharma, Deepti Sharma, Shafali Vaidya and others can shine for their franchises, then all the better.
It's too early to tell if the Women's IPL will be an unbridled success straight out of the gate. But this match certainly gives the tournament some much-needed impetus before it gets underway.