Much like their ODI World Cup opener against Pakistan three years ago in New Zealand, India were struggling after losing six wickets for not many on the board. In Mount Maunganui, it was 114/6. On Tuesday in Guwahati, in the curtain-raiser for their highly anticipated home campaign against Sri Lanka, it was 124/6. From a precarious position, however, three all-rounders came together to rebuild the innings, adding 145 runs for the last three wickets.
One protagonist was common to both innings three years apart. Sneh Rana had played a patient hand that day for an unbeaten 53, but in Guwahati, it was a slam-bang late cameo – 28 off 15 balls. The patient strike rotator had turned into a late-innings fireworks provider. But the meatier partnership, like the one Sneh and Pooja Vastrakar three years ago, was between Deepti Sharma and Amanjot Kaur, as they scored two contrasting half-centuries at No. 6 and No. 8 in the batting order, respectively.
Amanjot (57 off 56 with five fours and one six) was the more aggressive of the two, taking her chances with aerial shots, often riding on her luck but not backing down on intent. On the other hand, Deepti (53 off 53 with three fours) was more measured, trusting her strengths to keep the scoreboard ticking over with her array of sweep shots. Deepti’s legside and offside split in the wagon wheel was 85%-15% while Amanjot’s was 70%-30%.
While Amanjot predominantly targeted the square leg-midwicket region, Deepti swept anything and everything that was pitched up to her, ran hard between the wickets and never let her strike rate drop far behind run-a-ball. When they joined hands, India had lost four wickets in the space of 12 balls. Amanjot, however, didn’t let the match situation bog her down. A lofted sweep at the end of the 30th over got her innings, and the crowd, going. What the top order batters hadn’t managed to – targeting the open spaces in the field – Amanjot was able to, making it three quick fours with another fine sweep to move on to 16 off 14. The cheers got even louder shortly after, but this time not for a boundary but a high catch dropped by Achini Kulasooriya. It was the first of four reprieves that Amanjot would get.
In the 35th over, came one of the shots of the night. It was in the slot from Kaveesha Dilhari, and Amanjot picked up the length quickly, cleared her front foot and smashed a slog sweep between long on and deep midwicket. On 37, she got her second reprieve. A couple of crisp boundaries later, she reached her first half-century in the format, and she couldn’t have timed it any better. Her luck eventually did run out after four dropped chances, but given how her career had been hampered by ill-timed injuries so far, it was perhaps a case of odds evening out.
At the other end, Deepti played the perfect sheet anchor role. In a career where she has been moved up and down the order, without much consistency, she seems to have found her groove in the middle-order, even increasing the tempo of her innings – a problem area for her in the past. After her recent against England and Australia, she added another one to her tally, putting on 103 off 99 balls with Amanjot to breathe life back into India’s batting.
The postTale of three all-rounders: How Amanjot Kaur, Deepti Sharma and Sneh Rana pushed India from 124/6 to 269/8 in Women’s World Cup opener | Cricket News appeared first on Indian Express
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