Smriti Mandhana danced down the track. She launched into Ruchitha Venkatesh, and sent the hapless off-spinner over wide long-off.
The six took her past fellow-Indian Mithali Raj, making her the leading scorer of runs in international women’s cricket.
It was only fitting that her record-breaking stroke, in India’s Asia Cup match against Hong Kong China at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium last Thursday, came on the off-side. She is, after all, the goddess on the off-side.
It was not just her former India captain that Smriti moved ahead of on account of her 64-ball 124. She also took the record for the most hundreds in women’s international cricket from Australian legend Meg Lanning, who retired at the age of 31, and South Africa captain Laura Wolvaardt (17 each).
Lanning and Mithali were the two outstanding batters in women’s cricket. Ian Bishop had once said, Lanning was one of the very few players, male or female, that he would stop whatever he was doing just to watch her bat. And she is regarded by many, including the great Charlotte Edwards, as the greatest female cricketer of all time.
But for Mithali, humble and amiable off the field and ruthless on it, girls like Smriti would not have had an idol to look up to in India.
Until a decade ago, Mithali was the main reason why people in the country were aware of the existence of women’s cricket in India. She would score big runs with remarkable regularity and force her way into the sports pages.
Women’s cricket in India may be big now with big money, but for a long time it was the runs of Mithali and the wickets of Jhulan Goswami, along with thankless efforts from their teammates and their predecessors as well as the sacrifices of a man called Mahendra Kumar Sharma (an organiser who sold his property so that he could fund women’s cricket), that kept the sport alive.
Mithali and Jhulan are a bit unlucky in that their careers ended a year before the WPL began. They deserved to be part of the most glamorous and lucrative league in women’s cricket.
Smriti has certainly been lucky. Or cricket fans have been lucky. The WPL has played a major role in widening the fanbase of women’s cricket considerably. So a lot more people have been able to enjoy the sheer artistry of Smriti’s batting.
Make no mistake, there is no one in women’s cricket that gives as much joy. Yes, Wolvaardt has her own fans, and her cover drive is perfection; it is one of the greatest sights in cricket. And yet, Smriti is in a league of her own. When she gets going, you know why sport, at the highest level, is able to compete with art. The thing with Smriti is that even when she isn’t at her best, she can look good enough.
One recalls her speaking at a press conference about how she felt she wasn’t exactly at her best, after playing a big knock and some lovely strokes. That was the perfectionist in her speaking. A real artist is like that.
While the artistry in her batting may be a gift, her phenomenal success is something she has worked hard for. When she was little, her mother asked her to reach the top of whatever activity she chose for herself. She followed that advice.
Look at the way she is getting better and better. She is scoring faster, and she is converting far better, too. She has of late been hitting more hundreds in international cricket than she used to: last year alone, she made six of them.
Breathtaking
One of those hundreds gave India an excellent chance of pulling off a most unlikely chase against Australia. The Aussie women had made 412, and that too, without even batting for the full 50 overs at New Delhi. That was 111 more than the successful chase in a Women’s ODI at the time (since then India and New Zealand have set new records).
That night in Delhi, Beth Mooney, with a brilliant 75-ball 138, seemed to have batted India out of the match, but Smriti was in no mood to go down without a fight. Her breathtaking 125 off 63 balls raised India’s hopes. One recalls, while watching the match from the media box, going back to the scorecard of that incredible men’s ODI between South Africa and Australia at Johannesburg in 2006 (the host had chased down the target of 435 with Herschelle Gibbs making an unforgettable 111-ball 175).
Like Gibbs, Smriti was batting as if she was in a dream. As long as she was at the wicket, the target was going to be reachable for India: after 20 overs, India was 204 for two. With skipper Harmanpreet Kaur batting alongside Smriti, the Women in Blue had every reason to think of the unthinkable. The two, however, were soon dismissed, and though Deepti Sharma scored a valiant 72, India went on to lose by 43 runs.
Smriti has been the mainstay of the Indian batting.
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Getty Images
It may have come in a losing cause, but that innings by Smriti will be remembered for not just her elegance, but for her aggression and courage. When you add to Mooney’s superlative hundred in the first half of the match, it was a shining example of how much the women’s game has travelled, how much these brave women have made use of the opportunities that have come their way after decades of negligence.
Smriti had once told this correspondent how glad she was to see that the women’s game was getting its due, how the fans had begun to follow women’s cricket closely. She spoke of how people were now telling her about Radha Yadav instead of the girl who bowled left-arm spin.
When Smriti began her journey in cricket, you could barely have imagined such a time would arrive. In her Maharashtra town, Sangli, she was the first girl to train under Anant Tambvekar, her first coach. It was after watching her brother Shravan, who played for the Maharashtra junior team, that she wanted to become a cricketer. Rahul Dravid had presented her a bat through him.
Smriti played with that bat during her India debut against Bangladesh in the final T20I at the Reliance Stadium in Vadodara in 2013. Later that year, in the same Gujarat city, she scored a stunning 224 off 150 balls for Maharashtra against Gujarat in a West Zone under-19 one-day game at the Alembic ground. That innings was one of the early signs of her extraordinary talent.
She was 17 then.
Thirteen years later, she holds two of the most significant all-time records in women’s cricket. In fact, after her record-breaking innings, she said: “It is just the start, I would say.”
She admitted: “Going past the international record of the centuries, I mean, 18 is a good number to go past, firstly I will say that. But again, two of the legends of women’s cricket, Meg Lanning and Mithali Raj. Genuinely, these are the two people who I have grown up watching a lot of my cricket, tried to take a lot of things from them as batters. So I am really happy that I could go past them in whatever way.”
Smriti has been a consistent performer across formats.
| Photo Credit:
AP
Smriti will continue to spread happiness wherever she goes. Her batting is like that. Little wonder, her fans are spread across different countries, be it England or Australia. She is hugely popular in the leagues she plays there.
She has also earned a lot of respect from her peers or former stars. When they speak about the batters they enjoy watching, it is Smriti that they often talk about first.
Former England batter Mark Butcher and former Sri Lankan quick Rumesh Ratnayake have said Smriti reminded them of David Gower. W.V. Raman, former India opener who has also worked with her as the coach of the National team, has compared her to Sourav Ganguly.
Of course, Ganguly and Gower were among the most stylish players of their generations. At the moment, few batters could give the connoisseurs of cricket as much pleasure as Smriti.
At 30, there is plenty of cricket left in her yet. So the cricket fans can look forward to more delightful innings from her. She may be the world’s best batter, but that doesn’t mean that she cannot try to get better. During the Women’s T20 World Cup in England recently, when she had an opportunity to chat with former Australian opener Matthew Hayden, she sought tips on batting from him.
Smriti remains committed to her art as ever.
