MATCH STORIES
Follow Us“I think either we need to play a lot more Test cricket and incorporate it into our domestic practice and training, or we must just leave it because playing one in three years is very hard to adapt to.”
That’s what the South African skipper Laura Wolvaardt said on the eve of the one-off Test match in Chennai.
The lack of practice and training she mentioned was evident as the Proteas women took the field after being told to bowl first by the opposition skipper, Harmanpreet Kaur.
Playing three front-line seamers in Annerie Dercksen, Masabata Klaas, and Tumi Sekhukhune, it was expected that the pacers would be able to create issues for the Indian openers Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma. After all, the pitch at Chepauk is best for the pacers to bowl early in the morning when some help is available with the moisture lingering around the pitch and outfield.
However, after the first 10 overs, where the Indian openers batted with the single-minded determination to see out the initial tricky phase, the pacers proved toothless. There was an apparent attempt from both Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma not to play any expansive drive on deliveries pitched in the full-length area to entice them into a loose shot.
Nadine de Klerk’s spell in the first hour of play even tested Mandhana a bit - probably the only time any Indian batter was troubled a bit on the day. However, even that lasted for just six deliveries. Bowling the 11th over, de Klerk kept it on the stumps of Mandhana from around the wicket, getting the ball to move just a bit away from the left-hander.
Mandhana negotiated that dicey over somehow, and as it turned out, South Africa did not bowl a single maiden after that over.
After that, it was just an exhibition of classy, disciplined and technically correct batting by the Indian openers, who were severe on anything that was bowled short or wide to them. As a result of that and the failure to bowl on a consistent length and line from the South Africans, boundaries started coming in almost every over.
Skipper Wolvaardt tried various plans, including the one where pacer Dercksen bowled consistently short to Mandhana. However, the left-handed batter has been in great form, and despite the field being set for it, she continued to dispatch boundaries at will in that phase.
At lunch, India were 130/0. After lunch, it would get even worse for South Africa as their spinners came on.
However, the story didn’t change for the Proteas as left-arm spinner Mlaba and off-spinner Delmi Tucker bowled only 37% of deliveries on her stumps. If you look at Mandhana’s beehive against spin, you’ll see that most of her boundaries have come against deliveries bowled wide of the off stump.
Meanwhile, Verma, who batted with the kind of composure rarely seen from her in white-ball cricket, also started to open up, and the check drives and punches against pacers turned into down-the-ground smacks against the spinners.
Soon enough, both the batters had brought up their respective centuries, and by the time Mandhana got caught in the slips in the 52nd over at 149, the score was 292. India scored 204 runs in the session in just 32 overs at a run rate of 6.38.
If you want to understand how easy the Proteas made it for both the openers, you just have to see the boundary column for Mandhana and Verma. While the left-hander scored 26 fours and a six, Shafali Verma scored a historic 205 with 23 fours and 8 sixes!
Once you concede that many boundaries from just two batters in a lineup, it’s clear that not only was your bowling attack undercooked, but the opposition didn’t allow you an inch to come back in the game.
That’s what the world record opening partnership between Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana did to South Africa. The Proteas were physically and mentally pulverised by their consistent attack under the hot Chennai sun.
Wolvaardt was right, after all. South Africa weren’t prepared for this.
If you’ve not downloaded the Cricket.com app yet, you’re missing out — big time. Play Fantasy on Cricket.com NOW! Download the App here.
