Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022: Pooja Vastrakar-Sneh Rana rescue act shows the way as India beat Pakistan

One of the most overused cliches in sports is, ‘don’t play the occasion, play the game’, but cliched as it may be, the statement holds a lot of value. More so, when you have India playing arch-rivals Pakistan at the highest level of all — the World Cup.

World Cup campaign opener, match against Pakistan, sometimes the occasion gets to you. And it was no different for openers Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma as India got off the mark in the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022. Shafali retained her spot in the team despite some poor scores recently but her stay at the crease lasted just six balls. After five dot balls, Shafali resorted to an attacking flick and had her stumps pegged back.

Women’s Cricketer of The Year for 2021, Mandhana, was unsure with her footwork at the start, kept finding fielders with the shots and her running between the wicket was far from impressive. From the first 10 overs, India only managed 33 runs — their worst outing in a powerplay in the last 11 ODIs. They played a massive 43 dot balls, putting the opposition on the top.

The recovery from thereon was led by No 3 Deepti Sharma who scored 40 off 57 and stitched a 92-run partnership with Mandhana (52) to steady the boat. But there was more drama to come.

Deepti, Mandhana got out in quick succession. Mithali Raj and Harmanpreet Kaur failed to get going and Pakistan had India at a precarious 114/6. Precarious, largely because of how the top and middle order dealt with the bowlers and the pressure. India did not score a single boundary between 16.3 to 34.3 overs. Mithali and Harmapret put up 10 runs together off 27 balls. Between themselves, they accounted for 36 dots out of 50 they played.

Both batters are known for starting slow, and while they struggled to find boundaries during their stay at the crease, it was their failure to rotate the strike that put India under undue pressure. When Mithali got out in the 34th over with the scoreboard reading 114/6, India looked destined for a sub-200 score. Thankfully, there was a twist in the tale.

In came Pooja Vastrakar with her refreshing approach. It took all of six deliveries for her to break India’s boundary drought as she decided to take the game away from Pakistani bowlers. One followed two and then more. By the 40th over, Vastrakar had struck five boundaries and raced off to 33 off 29. India were 160/6 after 40 overs. Sneh Rana then decided to join the party with a boundary each in the next two over. Suddenly, India had wrested the momentum in their favour.

The Vastrakar-Rana onslaught continued till the 49th over by which the duo had put up 122 runs together — the highest partnership for the seventh wicket or lower in women’s ODIs. They also completed their respective fifties, becoming the first pair to score half-centuries in the same innings in women’s ODIs while batting at No 7 or lower.

Unbelievable stuff! But the highlight of their partnership or knocks wasn’t the big shots. In fact, only 40 percent of their total runs together came from boundaries. The majority came in singles, doubles and triples. And that was the highlight of their rescue act. Their clear intent from the start to go for runs, the enterprising attitude and aggressive running between the wickets, converting ones into twos, and twos into threes, helped the duo deal with the pressure.

They didn’t always wait for the boundary balls, instead, they put pressure on Pakistan by picking the gaps and running aggressively, forcing the fielders to make mistakes. Their proactive batting also impacted the rhythm of the Pakistani spinners who dominated the game till the 35th over. Suddenly the length got short, offering run-scoring opportunities to India who finished on 244/7.

The excellent work of Vastrakar and Rana was well complemented by the Indian bowlers who were on the money from the word go. Facing tight lines, Pakistan batters hardly had any opportunity to cut loose as they folded for 137 in 43 overs. Indian spinners who have struggled to take wickets recently combined for seven scalps with Rajeshwari Gayakwad returning with impressive figures of 4 for 31 from 10 overs.

In an eight-team round-robin tournament where four teams will make the semi-finals, every game is a must-win. By beating Pakistan, India have not only improved their chances, but the comprehensive 107-run victory has also done a huge favour to their Net Run Rate. It’s important for Mithali and Co to keep up the good work going forward.

From hereon, they will only face tougher teams and better bowling units. The Vastrakar-Rana batting template could come in handy in those matches.

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