A fearless Indian batting show despite ducks from Smriti and Harman

Snehal Pradhan

20 Sep 2018

New Update

India claim thriller to take unassailable lead in series — Taniya Bhatia after scoring her maiden half-century in her 2nd ODI. ©SLC

When was the last time an Indian batting effort was so exciting to watch?

Maybe at the Brabourne Stadium, when India put up 198. Maybe in Potchefstroom, when India chased 164. Or surely in the 2017 World Cup, when India scored 281 in 42 overs against Australia?

They are all worthy candidates, but India’s batting at the MCG ground in Katunayake can count itself among them. If not in the pedigree of the shotmakers, then certainly in the variety.

At the Brabourne, it was Smriti Mandhana and Mithali Raj who delivered. At Potch it was Mithali again, with assistance from Veda Krishnamurthy. Against Australia, it was, of course, the sheer force that was Harmanpreet Kaur.

In Katunayake, Mithali contributed 17. Harmanpreet got out for a second ball duck. Mandhana went one better, getting out for a first ball duck. And yet India got 168 in 20 overs.

Not the usual suspects, not the usual score. With a total contribution of 17 from their best three batters, India scored 75 in the power play, perhaps their best ever performance. And the bulk of those runs come from two players in their first year of international cricket.

Taniya Bhatia has been having a great tour. She made her first splash in the second ODI, coming in with the team at 66 for 4 and going on to make her first ODI fifty. On Wednesday, she came in at a decidedly more comfortable 58 for 2, her ODI knock giving her a promotion from No. 6 to No. 4. Her first shot should have her opening the batting in the next game.

I can still hear it: In came Srepali Weerakody, with inswing that had just dismissed Mithali Raj. In came another full ball, looking for the inside of the front pad. But down came Bhatia’s willow, connecting the overpitched ball with the crispness of the kinds you only see in potato-chip ads. Weerakoddy got a finger to the straight drive as it raced past her, and was lucky to keep it.

Bhatia took two more boundaries in the over before she saw wickets fall: she had come in when Mithali Raj was dismissed. Five balls later Rodrigues was out, middling a sweep straight to square leg. Two balls after that, the captain Harmanpreet Kaur was walking back, stumped for a duck. India had gone from 58 for 1 to 70 for 3. She and Anuja Patil, who made a handy 36, stuck around long enough to set a base from which India could attack without fear of being bowled out.

Before that, Jemimah Rodrigues effectively opened the inning and showed just why she can do it effectively: a 15 ball 36, including three consecutive sixes. In comparison, you might argue that India underperformed in their last 10 overs, taking 68 runs off them. But a brief respite was necessary to make sure India’s scoring rate-stalagmite held its own weight.

A first ball duck and a failure to reach a milestone were the best moments of the day for India. Mandhana stepped out to her very first ball looking to go aerial but could only find cover. And Bhatia got out for 46, looking to smash a ball for four when she was short of a personal milestone. Let me rephrase that: an Indian batter who knows that the team has a tendency of folding like a cardboard box if she gets out cheaply still had the belief (in herself and her team) to try and smash the first ball for four. And an Indian wicketkeeper and more than their fair share of those have come and gone, put a personal milestone aside and took a risk because it was the 16th over and it was the right thing to do.

And yet at the end of the game, the Indian team was given a 10-minute dressing down by coach Ramesh Powar, as Sri Lanka nearly got within a dozen runs of the Indian total. Yashoda Mendis, Chamari Athapaththu and Eshani Lokasooriya are names that are familiar to the Indians, having bruised them before in both formats. The first two got quick starts, dominant off the front foot. The third batted till the 19th over to always threaten to turn the game with a couple of her trademark big shots to midwicket. But India effectively used a 6-3 offside field against most batters while spin was in operation. Poonam Yadav, in particular, was clever with her variations. She forced Athapaththu to hit to the leg side where the fielders were and had eventually had her caught at deep midwicket. Then Shashikala Siriwardene was castled by a quicker ball. In the process, Poonam became India’s highest wicket-taker in T20s, moving to 57 wickets in 39 games. And when Radha Yadav had Lookasooriya caught and bowled off a mistimed pull that came off the toe, the game was effectively over.

Despite the admonishments, there were more reasons to smile for India than the 13 runs win. Because the match was played on foreign soil with no broadcast, few will remember it besides the players themselves. But mark this one down as a match that showed what this batting lineup can do when they choose to, even without the big names.

Harmanpreet Kaur India Mithali Raj Smriti Mandhana BCCI Women Veda Krishnamurthy Jemimah Rodrigues Anuja Patil Taniya Bhatia