India started their World Cup campaign on a high as they defeated hosts and pre-tournament favourites England in the opening encounter of the tournament. Riding on half centuries from the top three of Punam Raut, Smriti Mandhana and Mithali Raj, India posted a healthy total of 281 on the board.
England, in the chase, failed to hold on to themselves and fell short by 35 runs. There were quite a few highlights and talking points in the match, and here are five of the most important of them.
#1 Smriti Mandhana's exhibition of backfoot-strokes
Mandhana made the English bowlers pay for their shortish lengths in the powerplay. She rocked onto her back-foot and pierced the field at will with only two fielders outside the 30-yard circle. The left-hander launched an attack so brutal that skipper Heather Knight was forced to remove her best pace bowling option Katherine Brunt after just couple of overs.
The opener started brightly and pounced on any width to cut through the point region or drive through covers. Along with it, any short ball into the body was lofted over mid-wicket for a six or a four, all on the backfoot.
Though the 20-year-old slowed down halfway through her innings, she managed to score her 90 runs at a healthy strike-rate of 125. If India are to realise their dream of winning their first ever World Cup, Mandhana needs to continue firing.
#2 Mithali Raj’s rich vein of form
The Indian captain has been in scintillating form of late. She came into the match with scores of 70, 64, 73, 51, 54 and 62 in her last six matches. Sustaining her run, one of the greats of the women’s cricket, Mithali re-wrote history books and became the first player to score seven consecutive 50s in ODI history.
Notably, she is only behind Javed Miandad (nine) in terms of consecutive half-centuries if we combine numbers of both men’s and women’s cricket.
The 34-year-old took her guard after a 144-run partnership between Mandhana and Punam Raut had come to a halt and amassed 71 runs with the help of eight boundaries and pushed India’s total to 281. The right-hander breached another world record during her innings, that of most 50s (47*) in women’s cricket circuit.
Also Read: ICC Women's World Cup: Analysing the rise of Mithali Raj since her debut
#3 England’s pace battery fails to deliver
England boast two of the top 10 ODI wicket-takers in women’s cricket history, Jenny Gunn and Katherine Brunt. However, on the day, both of them failed to pick even a single wicket among them which led the hosts’ downfall in the match.
Brunt opened the bowling with Anya Shrubsole, only to be smacked all around the park by Mandhana. The Indian opener went on to hit four boundaries in the Englishwoman’s second over, which was the end of her first spell. She came on to bowl five more overs in her second spell but didn’t trouble the wickets column and ended with figures of 7-1-50-0.
Gunn, on the other hand, bowled her full quota of 10 overs. She was fairly economic as well, however, what hurt her team was her failure to make a breakthrough. Skipper Knight went back to Gunn twice in hope that the 31-year-old will break a partnership, but to no avail. The right-hander registered figures of 10-0-46-0.
#4 Fran Wilson’s heroics go in vain
England’s chase did not take the path they’d have hoped for. Shikha Pandey jolted the hosts twice in a space of nine runs, sending both the openers back to the pavilion. While captain Knight tried to steer the ship, it was Wilson who gave the English team a glimmer of hope.
Coming in to bat at number five, the 25-year-old started cautiously but began imposing herself on the Indian bowlers after the dismissal of her skipper. Most of her teammates were struggling against the spin-heavy Indian bowling attack but Wilson did not let that affect her approach.
Wilson was cruising to a century (75-ball-81) and along with it, was taking her team closer to the target before she became a victim of one of the four run-outs, which brings us to our next talking point.
#5 Indians inflict four run-outs to break England’s backbone
Though the Indian team did not have a ‘merry day’ in the field with quite a few dropped catches, they made up for it by inflicting four run-outs. The first one to fall short of reaching the crease was Knight as Harmanpreet Kaur showed quick reflex to pick the ball, turn and throw at the runner’s end, all after bowling the delivery herself.
Katherine Brunt was the next to fall victim to another brilliant bit of fielding, this time from Deepti Sharma. Standing at backward point, Sharma caught Brunt on the runner’s end with a direct throw.
Wilson lost her wicket courtesy the sharpness shown by Ekta Bisht on her own bowling. She pouched a grounded straight drive from Dunn, turned back and dismantled the bails. The third umpire was called upon for help and video replays showed that Wilson’s bat was in the air.
Fourth and the last batswoman to fall victim to a run out was Gunn herself. Mona Meshram’s timely throw caught her short of the crease as wicketkeeper Poonam Sharma quickly dislodged the bails.
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