Australia's Phoebe Litchfield had a Ben Stokes moment in the fifth and final T20I of the series against Harmanpreet Kaur-led India. The Australian opener who replaced an injured Alyssa Healy managed to score six runs off one legal delivery.
In the second over of Australia’s innings, Litchfield drove the ball through cover point for a couple of runs off left-arm pacer Anjali Sarvani’s bowling. Harleen Deol was in the deep and had a shy at the stumps as soon as she picked up the ball. Harleen missed by a good margin and her throw hit Litchfield on the pads. The ball ricochet off the batter's pads and rushed towards the boundary.
Harleen was speechless as her throw resulted in four extra runs in Australia's favour. Similarly, in men's ODI World Cup 2019 final, Trent Boult's throw resulted in six runs. In the final over of the run chase, Stokes put in a dive to complete a couple of runs but Boult's throw hit his bat and went to the boundary.
The extra fours runs changed the complexion of the game as England needed two runs off final two deliveries and the rest is history.
However, unlike Stokes, Litchfield did not turn out to be the game-changer for Australia. The left-handed batter scored 11 runs off nine deliveries. She was outsmarted by off-spinner Deepti Sharma who lured into advancing down the track. She got stumped out in the fourth over as Australia lost their second wicket in the fifth T20I at Brabourne Stadium.
This was Litchfield’s first appearance with the bat for Australia. The 19-year-old made her debut in the second T20I of the five-T20I series but did not get to bat.
Later, Harleen made up for the unfortunate overthrow with the catch she took of all-rounder Ellyse Perry in the 10th over of the innings. The ball almost jumped out of Harleen's hands but she juggled and completed it on the second attempt.
