MATCH STORIES
Follow UsShe came. She saw. She conquered. And we all bowed.
After all, if not bow, what else do you do to a batter who has scored 343 runs in three games at an average of 114.3 and a strike rate of 103.9?
What else do you do to a batter who scores a hundred after her team is reduced to 99/5 on a pitch with seam movement and turn?
What else do you do to a batter who subjected the Proteas to utter domination and didn’t give an inch in the second ODI?
That’s how good India’s vice-captain, Smriti Mandhana, has been at her newly adopted home. Just a few months after breaking the Royal Challengers Bengaluru trophy drought this year, she showed that not only is she hungry for more but is ready to change her methods that didn’t allow her to be consistently the best version of herself as a batter.
When her team were 99/5 in the first ODI, she played everything close to her body. Not a shot was played deliberately against the turn. She charged down the track against spin just once in 127 deliveries. Deliveries outside the off were even left alone — a rarity if you’ve seen Mandhana bat before.
However, she didn’t let her shots get restrained when the chance was offered. She scored against pace when they erred in their lines. She scored against the wily left-arm spinner of Nonkululeko Mlaba, who is so tough to hit.
Read: Saved by grace ft. Smriti Mandhana
And then, in the second ODI, when the Proteas offered her gifts, she accepted them with unflinching efficiency, scoring 136 in just 120 deliveries and doing something that no Indian woman has done before — score consecutive ODI centuries.
If you thought that was all she had in her quiver, she even came back with the ball, bowled right arm wrong footed medium pace, and got the former captain of South Africa, Sune Luus, caught out.
When that happened, there wasn’t a single bum warming the seats at the Chinnaswamy. All were up and jumping and cheering and shouting.
Read: When Smriti Mandhana bowled and Bengaluru went berserk
Then, in the third ODI, she was well on her way to extend that century streak to three today. The white ball left her bat with a delicious crunch under the dark Bengaluru skies. Boundaries flowed like the stream of consciousness on the offside. Short deliveries and even the not-so-short ones were pulled with disdain on the leg side. In total, she crossed the fence 11 times during the game.
All the while maintaining her shape, not playing an ugly hoick, and making her grace the function of her discipline.
She fell on 90, 10 short of a score that would have taken her to the top of most century scores for an Indian woman in the format.
It’s not that the world is discovering Mandhana's phenomenon in this series. However, this series is different. It’s different because she showed that she is capable of batting consistency that resembles some of the absolute greats of the format.
Maybe, it’s just Bengaluru, you know. This was the ground that announced the comeback of her WPL side. This was the ground that gave her glory and love and everything that a sportsperson dreams of in life.
This series, the Chinnaswamy, became even more for Smriti Mandhana. It became the ground where an upgrade in consistency unlocked her greatness in the ODI format. That’s the biggest takeaway from this well-deserved cleansweep.
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