In a must-win game against the best T20 team in the world, with a twenty-year old bowling the first over, only in her fourth match, Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma prodded and dabbed for six deliveries, collecting a mere three runs. We didn’t know it then, but it would become the theme for 90% of the innings. At the start of the 20th over, India ran a very real risk of finishing with a total below 160. The mark of 8 runs an over had been beyond them throughout the innings. It was an incredibly timid batting performance, well below their usual levels of intensity.
Out of sheer desperation, India retired Jemimah Rodrigues, and brought on Richa Ghosh to give the innings some impetus at the end. The surge would come from the other end, from the familiar bat of Harmanpreet Kaur, who hit three consecutive sixes off opposite number Sophie Molineux.
There was something of a deja vu to the whole Harmanpreet assault. Nine years back, about 200 kilometres from Lord’s, Harmanpreet Kaur had changed the profile of women’s cricket in India with a scarcely believable 171 in the ODI World Cup semi-final. Since then, whether it be the T20 World Cup matches in 2023 and 2024, or the Commonwealth Games final in 2022, or the ODI World Cup semi-final last year, Harmanpreet seems to find her best touch against the Aussies.
170 was never going to be a threatening total, but it was a total India could bowl at, and at least 15 more than India would’ve wished for at the start of the 20th over. Georgia Voll started with a four off the first ball, almost signposting the folly of Smriti and Shafali’s caution.
With eight overs left to go, Australia needed more than 10 runs an over, with seven wickets in hand. Ashleigh Gardner crunched Radha Yadav for a four and a six to signal the pressing of the accelerator. Gardner then climbed into Shree Charani, who has been amongst the best bowlers in the tournament, and then Shafali Verma. And around her, inevitable like English clouds, Ellyse Perry.
Australia finished the chase with more than one over left. India, seven months after winning the ODI World Cup, have crashed out before the semi-finals—like in 2024.
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India too sluggish: At the end of the 17th over, India had reached 127/2 with 15 fours and 2 sixes. Add three extras, and India had scored 52 from 85 non-boundary balls. Notice how, compared to Australia, the NBSR—non boundary strike-rate—for India’s batters tends to lag.
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Gardner shows how to move: While India were sluggish in pushing the run-rate, Ashleigh Gardner showed how to rotate the strike and still watch for the bad ball with a hawk’s attention.
