Have you hear of a stand-in coin tosser? Australia captain Meg Lanning just introduced one

Australia captain Meg Lanning pulled a rabbit out of the hat when she asked wicket-keeper Alyssa Healy to accompany her to the field for the toss at the North Sydney Oval on Sunday when the hosts took on Sri Lanka in the first T20I.

With a horrific record with the coin toss, Lanning got Healy at the ground for the toss to try her luck. Earlier this month, when the Aussies toured West Indies, Lanning managed just to win just the solitary toss.

At the time of the toss here on Sunday, there was Meg Lanning, Alyssa Healy and Sri Lanka captain Chamari Atapaththu. Healy flipped the coin and won the toss for Lanning. We have heard of a stand-in captain but seldom has anyone heard of stand-in tosser. Alyssa Healy was the stand-in tosser during the first T20I, courtesy Meg Lanning’s poor run with the coin toss.  

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Harmanpreet Kaur and Deepti Sharma shine in India’s 11-run win over South Africa in the first T20

Riding on Deepti Sharma’s brilliant bowling performance and Harmanpreet Kaur’s strong batting display, Women in Blue managed to sneak in a victory from the jaws of defeat against the Proteas on Tuesday at Lalabhai Contractor Stadium in Surat, Gujarat.

Winning the toss and electing to bowl first, the visitors put up a good show as they restricted the hosts to a gettable 130-8 in 20 overs. For India, the top performer with the bat was its skipper Harmanpreet Kaur who struck a delightful 43 (34) smashing three boundaries and two sixes. 15-year old Shafali Verma who has given the responsibility of opening the batting has to fill in the big shoes of former captain Mithali Raj. However the child prodigy failed to impress as she was outdone by Shabnim Ismail. Verma made her way back to the dugout without troubling the scorers. For the Proteas, Ismail was the pick of the bowlers as she struck with 3-26 in her four overs.

Chasing a modest 131, South Africa would have fancied their chances. However, the strong spinning combination of India trapped the visiting batters in a web thus reducing them to 119 in 19.5 overs. The spin trio of Deepti Sharma, Harmanpreet Kaur and Poonam Yadav picked up eight wickets among them, with pace spearhead Shikha Sharma accounting for the remaining two. Mignon du Preez (59) was the lone warrior in the fight and was just a stone’s throw away from taking her side home.

Overall, it was a thrilling contest between the two sides. The second of the three T20s will be played at the same venue on Thursday.

Two questions that the Indian team might grapple with before the second T20:

1. Should Jemimah Rodrigues open the innings and child prodigy Shafali Verma bat in the middle order?
2. Do the pacers alone have enough gas to run through the opposition's batting line-up if the spinners do not chip in?

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