Austria in Italy August 2021
Venue: Roma Cricket Ground, Spinaceto
Format: T20I
Toss: Italy
Result: Austria by 7 wickets
Austria Return Fire in Rome
Austria bounced back from defeat in game one to produce a true team effort to beat Italy by seven wickets to bring the series level 1-1.
Kumudu Peddrick won the toss for Italy and chose to bat first. Where she had led the team to victory the previous match with her 47*, here she was trapped third ball of the innings for a duck. Cricket has a way of doing that. From that moment the innings never really gained momentum and despite good knocks from Dishani Samarawickrama (33) and Sharon Withanage (10) the Italians were kept under 100 runs, finishing with 98/6 after twenty overs.
The Austrians started slowly and chewed up a lot of deliveries but the bowers helped them along by delivering 29 wides, something you cannot afford to do when protecting a modest total. The visitors made it in the end at the beginning of the twentieth over. They made it difficult by their slow scoring rate but ultimately would be satisfied to be winners by seven wickets.
Importantly for Austria, the victory came with being completely dependent on the bat of Andrea-Mae Zepeda, for this have been the case in the past with the former captain the only player with over 200 career runs. In fact she has the top six of the hughest scores for the team. A good useful knock from the new captain Gandhali Bapat bodes well for the future.
The duck by the Italian captain exposed a soft underbelly. While Peddrick is at the crease one feels anything is possible. Dishani is a solid performer but apart from Withanage was left to do it on her own today.
The series now stands at one each with tomorrow a double header. Who will press ahead?
Scores:
Italy 98/6 (Dishani Samarawickrama 33, Sharon Withanage 19, Sylvia Kailath 1-11) 20 overs
Austria 99/3 (Gandhali Bapat 19, Andrea-Mae Zepeda 16, Dishani Samarawickrama 1-12) 19.1 overs
Player of the Match: TBA