Published: Jul 05, 2017, 01:43 PM (IST)
Edited: Jul 05, 2017, 12:16 PM (IST)
India Women have been made to sweat exactly twice in the ongoing Women’s World Cup. The first of these came when Fran Wilson and Katherine Brunt threatened to pull off a heist despite being up against a target of 282 at Derby. There was a time when England Women needed 67 from 51 balls with 5 wickets in hand; India Women sorted things out with three run outs, all of them excellent ones (they had run Heather Knight out before). The four run outs were pulled off by four girls — Harmanpreet Kaur, Deepti Sharma, Mona Meshram, and Ekta Bisht. England Women could add another 30.
Australia, England, and New Zealand have been the perennial favourites of the World Cup. Even Mithali Raj has had set her eyes on a semi-final qualification as the first target before the tournament began. With the Big Three all looking good and South African boasting one of the finest bowling attacks in the world, it was expected to be a challenge. India had brushed the first target aside thanks to some superlative fielding (punctuated by some horrible dropped chances) to back their batters (only four were needed).
The spinners (Ekta, Deepti, and Poonam Yadav) came to the party against West Indies. A target 184 was never going to be challenging, especially after Smriti Mandhana’s second delightful innings of the tournament and Mithali Raj’s calming presence. This time they needed only five batters.
The second time India Women were tested was against Pakistan, who did not make the mistakes as England and West Indies. They bowled straight and full, often slow enough to obtain swing, and backed that with brilliant fielding. India, 111 for 6 at one stage, battled hard to reach 169 for 9.
Ekta decided the match with her first spell. At one stage her figures read 3.1-1-3-3. Jhulan Goswami found her rhythm back, while Mansi Joshi, in for Shikha Pandey (India’s only change in the World Cup so far), did a decent job — albeit without pressure. Deepti and Poonam impressed, as expected; and Mithali got Harmanpreet to roll her arm over.
India’s bowling attack looks formidable at this point. Ekta (29-4-84-6), Deepti (28.3-3-95-6), and Poonam (25-3-78-3) have kept opposition batters on stranglehold every time they have come on; and Harmanpreet has chipped in with 3 wickets.
Most importantly, Jhulan, the biggest name of them all, has found her rhythm. Unfortunately, the fifth-bowler conundrum is something that may bother India: while Mansi has impressed more than Shikha, the latter is a sound batter, averaging over 30 in ODIs with a strike rate of 95. Had Sushma Verma not stepped up, India might not have gone past 150 in Shikha’s absence.
True, five batters had done the job against England and West Indies. True, Sushma had bailed them out against Pakistan, but Jhulan and Sushma at 7 and 8 are definitely unnervingly high up the order. Shikha may not be needed against Sri Lanka, but India will need her batting skills against the big guns.
They may also be tempted to test Veda. Mona has batted only twice, but has not looked outstanding. She was not under pressure against West Indies, and scratched her way to a painstaking 35-ball 6 against Pakistan.
The rest of the team is likely to remain the same — unless they decide to give Nuzhat Parween or Rajeshwari Gayakwad a break ahead of Sushma or one of the spinners.
Likely XI for India: Punam Raut, Smriti Mandhana, Deepti Sharma, Mithali Raj (c), Harmanpreet Kaur, Veda Krishnamurthy, Jhulan Goswami, Sushma Verma (wk), Poonam Yadav, Mansi Joshi, Ekta Bisht.
Unfortunately, things have not been as rosy for Sri Lanka Women. They have been thrashed in all 3 matches — though, to be fair, however, they have played only the Big Three (at least on paper).
They have lost the matches by 9, 8, and 7 wickets. In other words, they have taken only 6 wickets from 3 matches. New Zealand had 74 balls to spare, Australia 37, and England 118. If the margin looks small for Australia, it was largely due to Chamari Atapattu’s magnificent 178 not out — the greatest innings in their history.
Only three Sri Lankan bowlers have conceded less than 5 an over in the tournament. Two of them have not bowled more than 5 overs. The other, Sripali Weerakkody, has had figures of 17-1-76-1; the fact that she has been the best bowler of them all is not good advertisement for Sri Lanka. We have seen what India’s top order is capable of.
Atapattu has played one outrageous innings. Her 53 against England is Sri Lanka’s only other score in excess of fifty. Nobody else has managed an aggregate of 80 or a strike rate of 70.
The bowling has been weak. Barring Chamari the batting has looked frail. Sri Lanka will have to punch significantly above their weight to pull off an upset.
Likely XI for Sri Lanka: Nipuni Hansika, Chamari Polgampola, Chamari Atapattu, Hasini Perera, Dilani Manodara (wk), Oshadi Ranasinghe, Shashikala Siriwardene, Sripali Weerakkody, Udeshika Prabodhani, Inoka Ranaweera (c), Chandima Gunaratne.
Achievements in waiting
– Mithali Raj needs 87 runs to become the highest run-scorer and 94 to become the only player to score 6,000 runs in women’s ODI cricket. With 5,992 runs, Charlotte Edwards tops the list.
– Jhulan Goswami needs 59 runs to score 1,000 career runs. She will also become the first to the 1,000 run-150 wicket double (she has 186 wickets).
– Chamari Atapattu needs 93 runs to become the first Sri Lankan to 1,000 ODI runs.
Head-to-head
The sides have clashed 25 times in ODIs. India have won 23 of these. In another match they had bowled out Sri Lanka for 116 before the match was rained off following 2 wicket-less overs in the Indian innings.
That was in the 2005 World Cup. Sri Lanka’s only win against India came in the World Cup too, in 2013. Sri Lanka put up 282 for 5 and bowled India out for 144. As a result, India were eliminated from the tournament and Sri Lanka made it to the Super Sixes at their expense. It was the last World Cup clash between the sides, and India will have vengeance in mind when they take field today.
Squads
India: Mithali Raj (c), Sushma Verma (wk), Nuzhat Parween (wk), Ekta Bisht, Harmanpreet Kaur, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Jhulan Goswami, Mansi Joshi, Veda Krishnamurthy, Smriti Mandhana, Mona Meshram, Shikha Pandey, Poonam Yadav, Punam Raut, Deepti Sharma.
Pakistan: Inoka Ranaweera (c), Dilani Manodara (wk), Prasadani Weerakkody (wk), Hasini Perera, Nipuni Hansika, Chamari Atapattu, Chandima Gunaratne, Eshani Lokusuriyage, Harshitha Madavi, Chamari Polgampola, Sripali Weerakkody, Udeshika Prabodhani, Shashikala Siriwardene, Oshadi Ranasinghe, Ama Kanchana.
Time: 10:30 local | 09:30 GMT | 15:00 IST
