India, Oct. 30 -- Phoebe Litchfield cover driving as a 16-year-old was the first sighting. The clip went viral, which helped the New South Wales batting sensation to speed through the meritorious Australian women's cricket biosphere. That was then.

The next defining image of the left-handed precocious batting talent's career came on a warm October afternoon in Navi Mumbai on Thursday. The now 22-year-old switched her batting position and smacked India's best spinner Deepti Sharma over what was the conventional covers boundary region.

In a coming of age knock, Litchfield's switch hits and reverse sweeps seemingly had India on the mat in the World Cup semi-final. So much so that by the time she was dismissed in the 28th over for 119 (93b,...