MATCH STORIES
Follow UsThe first time India’s star batter bowled in international cricket became one of the most euphoric moments in her career.
Who would have thought that the biggest cheer of the day would be reserved not for Smriti Mandhana’s hundred but rather for her bowling?
No one. Absolutely no one.
But almost every single soul inside the Chinnaswamy was on their feet cheering for Mandhana as she delivered her ball with an action that Rahul Dravid would describe as “right arm wrong footed inswinging menace.”
Before the game, she was seen bowling to Jemimah Rodrigues in the nets. However, no one had an inkling that she would bowl in the game, as after the ACL injury she sustained in 2017 while bowling in the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL), she stopped rolling her arms over. Then, it was towards the end of the first season of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) that she bowled again.
She had never bowled for India before this, though. And what a day she chose to do so!
After scoring 136, which is her highest score in ODIs, she came on to bowl in the 15th over of the game. As soon as the crowd realised who the bowler was, all bums rose from their seats, and their throats opened up. The noise that was heard in the stadium was enough to drown the TV commentary.
Even the broadcast director wouldn’t have anticipated this sudden rise in the audio levels just one ball later.
Mandhana, bowling at a gentle, medium pace, clocked 110.9 off her second delivery for India, which is not a bad pace at all for someone who’s not even a part-timer. She bowled it on a back of a length outside off from wide of the crease, and Sune Luus looked to cut it away. However, the ball bounced more than she would have anticipated, and it took her outside edge. Richa Ghosh made no mistake, and Mandhana couldn’t believe what happened!
She ran around the ground like a swarm of bees were chasing her, and within no time, her teammates, who were even more jubilant than her, engulfed her in their arms.
Meanwhile, the crowd, which wasn’t even filling a fourth of the Chinnaswamy seats, roared with ferocity to match a full house stadium.
It was the third time an Indian woman had scored a century and picked up a wicket in the same game. Before this, Harmanpreet Kaur (against Bangladesh in 2013) and Deepti Sharma (against Ireland in 2017) had also achieved this feat.
But the achievement would have meant even more for Mandhana, who has repeatedly said how Bengaluru feels like home to her after the WPL. And her home didn’t leave any stone unturned to make her moment memorable for her.
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