Shafali Verma secures hat-trick during Women's Under 23 Trophy

On Monday, Shafali, who fell out of favour with national selectors in white-ball cricket after scoring just 97 runs in four matches of the ICC Women's T20 World Cup during a group-stage exit, dominated with the bat in the Women's Premier League (WPL), which concluded recently, with the right-hander emerging as fourth-highest run-getter with 304 runs in nine innings at a strike rate of over 152 and a fifty to her name. Her 16 sixes were only bettered by Gujarat Giants (GG) skipper Ashleigh Gardner (18 sixes), as per Wisden.

Shafali's DC ended as runners-up, losing their third-successive final to Mumbai Indians (MI) at Brabourne.

During the U23 Women's Trophy, Verma was leading Haryana in Guwahati against Karnataka, which was led by Niki Prasad, both being the winning captains of the ICC U19 Women's T20 World Cup. Niki was also her teammate in the WPL.

With Karnataka piling up runs, Verma, whose off-breaks have given her 12 international scalps, came to deliver some part-time spin. In the 44th over, Karnataka was 188/4, and Shafali got Saloni P caught off the fifth ball, and trapped wicketkeeper Soumya Verma leg-before on the sixth. Then later on the first ball of the 46th over, her next, she cleaned up Namita D'Souza's stumps to secure a hat-trick and end with figures of 3/20 in four overs.

Mithila Vinod's 87-ball 90 helped Karnataka reach 217. While batting, Shafali could just make 18 in 12 balls, with four boundaries. Haryana was in trouble at 71/3, but fine half-centuries by Sonia Mendhiya (66 in 79 balls) and Tanisha Ohlan (77 not out in 77) and a cameo by Triveni Vasistha (25 not out in 37) helped Haryana win with six wickets and eight wickets in hand.

Shafali's hat-trick is the fourth by an Indian woman in 2024-25 and first in 50-over cricket. The first three were: Zothan Sangi (for Mizoram against Gujarat), Saiqa Ishaque (for India A against India E), and Vaishnavi Sharma (for India U19s against Malaysia U19s) all in 20-over matches. (ANI)