Jhulan batted very well, came in and put pressure on the bowlers but the total was still chaseable, says Heather Knight, England captain
Of late in Indian women’s cricket, the middle-order and lower-order have capitulated so much. It has often not been able to consolidate on the start given by the top-order comprising Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues.
But, if one were to go by Friday’s performance against England that gave Mithali Raj’s team a 1-0 lead with the 66-run victory at the Wankhede, the team can take confidence in the way the lower-order took the team to a winning score.
The team has heavily depended on left-handed Mandhana that it has gone on to lose once she is dismissed, as was seen in New Zealand recently. The same could have been the situation on Friday after England medium-pacers Katherine Brunt and Anya Shrubsole troubled the openers Rodrigues and Mandhana that the teenaged right-hander survived two leg-before wicket appeals before she got her eye in.
Mandhana, who was not at her free-flowing best, dragged a widish delivery down the leg side on to her stumps to fall for 24. Such was the Indian middle-order collapse that despite Rodrigues’s stroke-filled 48 (58b, 8x4), the hosts were reduced to 95/5, losing four wickets in the span of 10 runs.
But one thing common to Indian batting over the last two decades has been the presence of Mithali, who on the day, played her 181st ODI innings to go past retired Englishwoman Charlotte Edwards’s record of 180 for the most visits to the crease in this format.
Raj kept the Indian innings together from a mighty fall and strung 54 for the sixth wicket with an aggressive Taniya Bhatia before fellow veteran Jhulan Goswami struck some deadly blows en route to her 30 to take India past 200.
The total of 202 gave India a psychological edge considering that the spinners would come into play in the second half.
England tried their best with the ball after choosing to bowl. It was just that they could not complete the task they set out. And, as it turned out, the Indian batting was not entirely reliant on Mandhana and Rodrigues for a competitive score.
Player of the match, left-arm spinner Ekta Bisht said the time openers Mandhana and Rodrigues spent time in the middle was crucial. “There was help from the pitch for the first 20 minutes or so,” Bisht said.
England captain Heather Knight said Goswami’s 37-ball 30 at No. 8 made the difference. “Jhulan batted very well, came in and put pressure on the bowlers but the total was still chaseable,” Knight said after the defeat.
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