IT HAS been a tournament for the bowlers so far in the Women’s Under 19 World Cup, with many of the best performances so far being bowlers.

One of those was Vaishnavi Sharma in yesterday’s clash between India and Malaysia, who ripped through Malaysia’s middle order to take 5/5 from her four overs and accelerate what the bowlers before her in the innings had already started. She was also on her debut, having not played in India’s first game of this tournament or at the inaugural edition of the tournament in 2023.

She is a left arm slow orthodox bowler, but has a similar technique to someone like Sophie Day in the sense that she is a slow bowler who does not get the spin that someone like Alana King would.

When Sharma first began her spell, the Malaysians were sitting at 4/20 after seven overs and really did not have much momentum in their innings. Sharma then came in and made things a lot worse.

The previous over had been an over of pace, so bringing on a spinner in Sharma was a change up in pace for the Malaysian batters to have to overcome.

After starting her spell with a dot and then a wide, Sharma showed she can correct mistakes really quickly with a great correction of her line the very next ball, which almost skittled the batter.

After another single, her first wicket came on the fourth ball of that opening over.

After bowling a pretty similar line again, Nur Dania Syuhada managed to edge the ball off the bottom of the bat, which then skied it and it was a simple catch for Niki Prasad to take at mid off.

Although the new batter was a left hander compared to the right handed Dania Syuhada, Sharma continued coming around the wicket but was able to adjust her line to ensure she did not end up bowling any leg side wides in either of the final two balls of that over.

After Malaysia only scored another two runs in the over after Sharma’s first over, she was back and did not waste time in taking her second wicket of the innings. It was a fuller ball than many of her balls in the previous over had been, but it worked a treat as it bowled straight through Nuriman and she was heading back to the pavilion. Sharma again then went on to only concede two runs from that over.

Sharma’s third over was even tighter lines than her first two overs had been. Although she did not get any wickets in that over, her lines were so tight that it did not give the batter that much room to move, and the one time the batter did get a swing at it, it only made it to mid on, As such, Sharma was rewarded with a maiden over.

Sharma then returned for a final over, and continued to bowl very full, very direct lines that did not give much room for the batters to move. As such, she was rewarded with another wicket on the second ball of the over when she trapped Ain in front, and with the stellar line of the ball she was dismissed for LBW.

However, Sharma was not done there. She then bowled a similar line to Nur Isma Dania the very next ball, who completely misjudged her timing and was also dismissed LBW.

Sharma then completed a hatrick by bowling Nazwah, who had completely side stepped the wrong way off her line and got her leg stumped completely bowled.

Sharma also had wickets on her fifth and sixth ball of the innings, but the first catching chance did not carry and the line of the shot for the second catching chance was not quite right for a catch to be taken.