Where are the fours and sixes in the Women’s T20 World Cup?

What’s a Twenty20 game without fours and sixes? The Women’s T20 World Cup is eight games old but is yet to catch fire. Many matches have been low-scoring affairs when spin played a dominant role, which explains the scarcity of boundaries.

Franchise cricket has shown that women can hit the cricket ball a fair distance. The World Cup has had a fair sprinkling of boundaries, but not enough for an international tournament. West Indies’ Deandra Dottin relies on sheer power, New Zealand skipper Sophie Devine finds the fences with her placement, and Pakistan captain Fatima Sana employs pure timing.

The methods may vary, but runs have to come thick and fast. The scoreboard has to keep ticking. That’s the key in white ball cricket.

New Zealand’s strokeplay

Runs were difficult to come by at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, where the wicket offered turn with low bounce, making strokeplay difficult, especially against spin. Mediumpacers thrived in the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, where spinners too found success. But the heavy outfield slowed down the shots near the boundary line.

New Zealand batters were the most pleasing so far. Openers Suzie Bates and Georgia Plimmer threw caution to the winds in the powerplay and attacked the Indian bowlers. Kiwis’ 160 remains the highest score, and their boundary haul of 16 is the best in the tournament. Captain Sophie Devine alone found the fence seven times as she notched the first fifty of the event.

Mediumpacers also held sway in the match, in a break from the spin dominance, as New Zealand’s Rosemary Mair and Lea Tahuhu did the bulk of the damage, sharing seven Indian wickets. Continuing the pace success, India’s Arundhati Reddy laid low Pakistan, although Pakistan spinners kept the Indian batters on a tight leash, slowing their march to victory.

Spinners’ paradise

South Africa’s left-arm spinner Nonkululeko Mlaba produced a matchwinning spell against the West Indies, who cracked 11 fours in 118. In the chase, south African openers Laura Wolvaardt and Tazmin Brits were more positive.

The Sharjah wicket has been a spinners’ delight since it was relaid a few years back. It’s not the belter of the past when the placid surface and shorter boundaries gave way to run deluges. The square hasn’t settled down well. It will take time and more matches.

Now, the spin stranglehold generates low-scoring games, and the Women’s World Cup isn’t an exception. On the inaugural day, when debutants Scotland clashed with original hosts Bangladesh, there were just 15 boundaries when the teams scored 222 runs.

The second match produced three sixes, with Pakistan’s Muneeba Ali hammering the first maximum of the tournament. There were two more from the Pakistan batters, but scoring became difficult once the spinners came into play. The Sri Lankans lost despite restricting to 116 as Pakistani spinners ran circles around the batters.

That was enough for captain Heather Knight to drop pacer Lauren Bell in favour of Linsey Smith, who played a strong hand in England’s win. The four-pronged spin attack helped the English stave off Bangladesh despite slumping to 116 after a strong show from openers Danni Wyatt-Hodge and Maia Bouchier, who posted 48 for the first wicket.

After the match, Knight said: “[It was] tough out there, conditions were tough for batting and boundary-hitting. Happy with the score it was a good total. Surface got slower and lower.”

That sums up the batters’ challenge in Sharjah. Boundaries should come more freely in Dubai. Dottin provided more proof with a hat-trick of boundaries, including two sixes, as the West Indies raced to a win against Scotland. Hopefully, that’s the beginning of many more.

Let there be more fours and sixes. That’s the essence of T20 matches.