Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur in action during the India-Sri Lanka Women’s T20 World Cup match. (ICC on X)
It took a couple of matches for India to warm up to the conditions at the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, and on Wednesday they finally managed to put together their most complete performance to beat Sri Lanka by a massive margin of 83 runs. Leading the way was their two leaders—cice captain Smriti Mandhana and captain Harmanpreet Kaur.
The pair didn’t bat together, they only crossed paths as the former was dismissed and the latter walked into bat once more at No 3. But in the time they spent on the pitch, they covered the 20 overs – with Smriti falling for a 38-ball 50 in the 13th over and Harmanpreet remaining unbeaten on a blistering 27-ball 52 for her fastest half century in this format. Together, the two knocks powered India to 172/3 – the highest team total set so far at the World Cup, going past South Africa’s 166 from just a few hours earlier. In response, Sri Lanka managed only 90 in 18.5 overs, as India registered their win biggest win in terms of run-margin in the history of this tournament.
That South African effort earlier in the afternoon perhaps came at the right time for India too, knowing that there was a chance to go big if they won the toss. There has been a lot of talk about the pitch, the heat, and the outfields in both Sharjah and Dubai that have made this a low-scoring World Cup so far. But after their go-slow against Pakistan in the run-chase, India didn’t waste much time to get going against the Asian champions.
Early exchanges
The early impetus came from Shafali Verma, who struggled against Pakistan despite catching up later on. It is not often you see Shafali not score a single boundary in the powerplay if she bats the 6 overs. But the intent felt different from the word go, even if it didn’t necessarily result in a fast start. Indian openers started to play attacking shots from the first over, with both batters looking to go aerial when possible. By the end of the 5th over, Shafali had managed to find the boundary three times.
Smriti, however, was on 6 off 10 balls at that point and took her time to get going. A lofted shot in the 6th over seemed to have unlocked the free-flowing left-hander that the world is used to watching. From there, she smashed 34 runs off the next 18 balls to overtake Shafali, who started to struggle for timing post the powerplay. The Smriti acceleration came at the perfect time for India.
But when the openers were dismissed off back-to-back deliveries in the 13th over, the focus shifted to Harmanpreet. Not known to be a fast starter, it helped India that for a brief while when new batters had walked in, Jemimah Rodrigues played a nice little cameo to ease the pressure on the Indian captain. But once she found her footing, Harmanpreet played one of her best knocks in recent times, peppering both sides of the wicket. A majority of her runs came in the arc between cover and midwicket, as she smashed 8 fours and a mammoth 84m six, the longest of the tournament so far.
“We were really pumped up today to come, Shafali batted really well in the powerplay and she got us off to a good start. Towards the end the way Harman batted was brilliant to watch,” Mandhana said. “The wicket and conditions are not what we thought it would be when we came to the World Cup, so we had to change our game quite quickly,” she added.
The last two-three days, thus, have been about understanding the shots that worked on these pitches, she said. “As a team we spoke about running really hard between the wickets and targeting twos. This is a hard-working wicket. But Harman definitely did not make it look difficult at all, the way she timed the ball was amazing. I think it was not like a flat wicket to bat on. But once you are set, you start seeing the ball well and then you know which areas to target.”
Sri Lanka needed a big effort from their top three if they stood any chance but they were reduced to 6/3 by the third over, and from there it was just a question of India’s victory margin and NRR boost. For Chamari Athapaththu’s side – who came into the tournament with plenty of belief – it’s been a forgettable outing as their batters have collectively failed to fire. But Harmanpreet and Smriti ensured India adapted to the conditions, finally clicking into top gear as a unit.
