[Watch]- ‘Ball of the year?’ Shikha Pandey knocks over Alyssa Healy with a vicious nip-backer

Indian seamer Shikha Pandey produced an absolute jaffa during the second T20I against Australia to knock over opener Alyssa Healy, giving the visitors a perfect start to their defense of a meager total of 118/9.

Healy has been a victim of too many good deliveries during this multi-format series against India. She would have been relieved at the prospect of not facing her nemessis Jhulan Goswami in the T20I rubber, but to her horror, Shikha Pandey produced a delivery that would have made even Goswami proud.

It all happened on the second ball of the Australian innings when Pandey got a length delivery bowled on possibly the sixth stump to jag back in viciously.

The prodigious movement cut Healy in half before knocking over the off-stump.

Watch the video here:

The delivery is already being tipped as the ‘ball of the summer’ and it won’t be an exaggeration to say that it may well be a contender for the ‘ball of year’ across men’s and women’s cricket.

Australia lose 5 quick wickets in their run-chase of 119

Pandey couldn’t have bowled that delivery at a better time as the Women in Blue desperately needed to see the back of Healy to put some sort of pressure on the Aussies in the 2nd T20I.

Post the dismissal, Beth Mooney and skipper Meg Lanning weathered the storm with a 31-run stand.

But the introduction of spin proved to be Lanning’s undoing as Rajeshwari Gayakwad dismissed the Aussie No.3 for a 20-ball 15.

Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur brought herself into the attack and the move paid dividends as she got rid of Ashleigh Gardner for a 5-ball 1.

Deepti Sharma also struck in her first over to reduce the gone side to 46/4 in 9.1 overs as she knocked over the legendary Ellyse Healy.

Earlier in the day, India endured a poor outing with the bat, and it was only because of Pooja Vastrakar’s 26-ball 37* that they managed to post a total in excess of 110.

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At the time of writing, Australia were 76/5 in 13.5 with Tahlia McGrath holding fort in the middle along with Nicola Carey.