From gully cricket to DPL, power girl Shivi Sharma making heads turn

New Delhi: Once during her schooldays, Shivi Sharma turned out for an inter-house cricket match. Her ability to hit sixes caught the attention of her sports teacher who advised her to join a cricket academy. Shivi had been playing all sports, excelling in all of them.

"I used to play all sort of sports, cricket was one of them. I've played a lot of gully cricket, played a lot of football. My sports coaches would advise me to join a sports academy," said Shivi after she powered to an unbeaten 71 off 54 balls (9x4s) to help North Delhi Strikers beat South Delhi Superstarz by 10 runs in a Women's Delhi Premier League (DPL) match at the Ferozeshah Kotla Ground on Saturday.

Those advices wouldn't be taken seriously but things changed after that inter-house match.

"After watching my performance that day, my sports teacher advised me to join an academy. I was already interested in sports and after that my interest increased and I joined an academy."

That helped her chart a course in cricket and soon she was representing Delhi at the age group levels. Shivi has played for Delhi under-19s and was part of the under-23 squad in the one-dayers. She hasn't yet played the T20s. She has also played one game for the senior team.

This, however, could be a breakthrough year. She has smashed two fifties in the first two matches -- 57 not out on Friday and 71 not out on Saturday to earn back-to-back Player of the Match Awards. The young Dwarka girl, who studied at Holy Child Auxilium in RK Puram before shifting to a school close to her residence to save time, has impressed with the power in her shots.

"I would play with the boys when I used to play gully cricket," she says, hinting that the early days of gully cricket with boys had set the high standard for power behind her shots.

The two innings here have come in different scenarios. On Friday, her team was chasing a low target -- 101 runs. On Saturday, the team had to set a big target.

"I knew that the more we score the better it will be for us and the pitch was good for batting. I know that if I play deliveries on merit I can give my best whether I am setting a target or chasing a target."

Shivi got three successive centuries in her the DDCA T20 League that was held just a couple of months ago. 

After North Delhi Strikers hit 141/4 in 20 overs in the first innings thanks to Shivi Sharma's 71 not out and Upasana Yadav's 43, South Delhi Superstarz fought hard through Tanishqa Singh (46), Shweta Sehrawat (27) and Tanisha Singh's 24 not out but they fell short by 10 runs. Nazma (2/28) was the pick of the bowlers for North Delhi Strikers.

South Delhi Superstarz, for some reason, brought Tanisha in to bat at No. 5 instead of making her bat inside the top 4.

Tags : Shivi Sharma, DPL, Tanisha Singh, Nazma Khan, Dwarka