India vs Sri Lanka, ICC Women’s World Cup 2017: Mithali Raj, Deepti Sharma steer India to 232/8 on a slow Derby track
WWC 2017: Mithali, Deepti steer India to 232/8 on a slow Derby track
On a sluggish Derby track that forced the batters to come into a position twice, India scored 232 for 8 against Sri Lanka in ICC Women’s World Cup 2017. After Sri Lanka made early inroads, Deepti Sharma and Mithali Raj added 118 runs for the third wicket — both scoring a fifty each. India then lost Deepti, Mithali, and Jhulan Goswami in 14 balls, but Harmanpreet Kaur and Veda Krishnamurthy hit as powerfully as they could and took India to a competitive total. Although the Sri Lankan bowlers started off well, they lost the plot as soon as India launched an onslaught in the middle overs. To make matters worse, they dropped as many as 3 catches — and all easy ones.
Like we witnessed during India’s previous 3 matches, Mithali Raj did not read a book when the openers were batting (or, maybe she ran out of books or forgot them at the hotel room). Instead, she was busy reading the conditions, and well, she had to.
At the toss, Mithali said the track will slow down in the middle overs and the spinners will come in to play. That did happen but earlier than expected, proving Mithali’s judgements wrong.
Sri Lanka introduced slow left-arm orthodox Chandima Gunaratne in the second over. They dished out the same strategy that India counterattacked with, against Pakistan.
Smriti Mandhana, a power-hitter, relies more on pace. She had to be mindful against Gunaratne, seeing off her first over.
She fetched her first boundary off pacer Sripali Weerakkody, driving a length ball past mid-off. Her partner Punam Raut, however, did not have any problems against spin. She beautifully drove a tossed-up ball. In the following over Weerakkody had Raut almost caught behind, but the edge fell short and Raut picked up a lucky boundary.
Gunaratne came round the wicket to Mandhana, altering the angle. That, however, changed Sri Lanka’s fortune as well. The slowness of the track made Mandhana close the face of the bat early and induced a leading edge to short mid-wicket.
Raut tried to emulate a similar stand she had stitched with Deepti, but fell prey to the nature of the track as well. In came Mithali Raj and scored a mere 1 off 17 balls. Sri Lankan bowlers did not give any room to let her open her arms and scythe the ball as classically as she does past the backward point.
Sensing urgency, Deepti decided to up the ante. And the only way to do it was to shimmy down the track before the ball dips. Although she could not collect a six, most of the fours went one bounce into the fence (Ravi Shastri would have liked describing them). Mithali and she scored fifties, placing India in a commanding position.
There was a sudden downfall before the death overs. As India lost Deepti, captain Inoka Ranaweera soon dismissed Mithali and Jhulan Goswami off consecutive deliveries. Ranaweera had to dismantle Harmanpreet Kaur’s defence to bag a hat-trick and, for apparent reasons, failed to do so.
Weerakkody was on the pursuit of achieving a similar feat as well, dismissing Harmanpreet and Veda Krishnamurthy off successive balls. However, she faced the same fate, being deprived of a hat-trick.
If India defend the total, they will be almost through to the semis.
Brief scores
India 232 for 8 (Deepti Sharma 78, Mithali Raj 53; Sripali Weerakkody 3 for 28) vs Sri Lanka.