By Deepika Sarma
Today, the ICC Women’s World T20 gets off to an exciting start in Bangalore: India takes on Bangladesh (3.30pm, Chinnaswamy Stadium). And so far, it’s been so, so good!
Last week, I witnessed something amazing: when the Indian team leave the dressing room for a practice session, they come out accompanied by Bollywood music played on someone’s cellphone, players busting a dance move or two as they make their way across the field. Once they reach the spot where nets have been set up for them to practice and their kits have been neatly arranged at the plastic chairs set out for them on the field, they kick around a football for a while to loosen up. Practice is serious and grueling, but in the off moments it’s clear that the team is enjoying themselves too – the mood is light, the women chat, sing, and horse around. You’d never guess the tremendous amount of pressure they’re under.
There’s a lot at stake for the Indian team at this T20 World Cup: getting far in the tournament (maybe even winning) won’t just be a victory for the team, who have been performing extremely well so far and have the added advantage of playing on home turf. Showing that Indian women can be successful at the sport means everything for women’s cricket in India: more investment from the BCCI, more investment from sponsors and advertisers, and more interest from the media and sports fans. And it blazes a trail for other women cricketers who fervently hope the game they love can be financially sustainable too. Match fees for women players are typically low, and only late last year, the BCCI introduced central contracts for 11 women players, which means those not on contract may not be able to afford being full-time cricketers.
For all that rides on their success, however, the team is extremely confident and it’s carried them through the two practice matches at Chinnaswamy in the last week in style: on March 10, they beat Ireland by 29 runs. Smriti Mandhana scored 73 runs out of the team’s total of 147, and Niranjana Nagarajan and Shikha Pandey took two wickets each. Pandey even sealed the fate of Ireland opener Clare Shillington with a catch.
The second practice match against Sri Lanka on March 12 was a good one too: Deepti Sharma took two wickets during the first innings, while Smriti Mandhana made 47 runs while batting and VR Vanitha made 37, ending the chase after Sri Lanka’s score of 125 early with a brilliant 6 hit into the stands.
Although India’s won against Bangladesh every time they’ve played them in a T20 match (that’s seven times so far), and they probably will again. But that’s no reason to believe Bangladesh will lie down and give up. Right from the joint captains’ press conference on March 9 in Bangalore, Bangladesh captain Jahanara Alam seemed confident that her team would do well. Although they lost their first practice match against Sri Lanka by 5 wickets on March 10, they put up a good show in their second practice match against Ireland on March 20, thrashing Ireland by 8 wickets and chasing down their score of 74 runs in just 12.3 overs.
At yesterday’s press conference before the start of the Women’s T20 World Cup, Alam told reporters that although India seemed the strongest side this time, “[N]othing is impossible. I think, definitely India is the toughest and strongest team, but we would like to play good cricket.”
If Bangladesh does go down again this afternoon, you can be sure it won’t be without a fight.