A batting masterclass from Indian women belted out a new test match history with the team amassing 525 days on a batting paradise at Chepauk in a single day, the Day One of the One Off Test against South African Women.
No men or women’s team has batted so beautifully and belligerently on the opening day of a test match to score so much and so fast that the few thousand fans at the venue could not believe their date with cricketing history at Chepauk, the greatly hallowed ground in the country, yet again.
The day though began like any usual test match with the sun sprinkling golden dust from the nearby bay. Masabata Klaas was running in hard from the red-green tinged roof pavilion end and a golden-haired Annerie Dercksen strode fast with a gleaming red cherry in hand from the Wallajah Road end. It was a purely magical sight. One could only wonder why it took nearly 50 years for the women to play a test match here.
The new ball bowlers kept it straight, with a little swing, and the Indian openers, Smriti Mandhana, in the form of her life and Shafali Verma, searching for big runs, playing straight, calmly with caution, to shoo away the early shine. Morning was still waking up in the fields of grass. After about nine overs, the batting masterclass started like a perfect sunshine. If Smriti fascinated with her cover drives, Shafali thrilled the sparse crowd with her breath-taking straight drives. Scoring at will and tandem, the openers who share a secret bond similar to the other great opening pairs, piled the runs in boundaries. Smriti started with a silken front foot cover drive, then a backfoot drive, a lazy square drive, and a stop-drive, all through covers as soon as Nadine de Klerk and Tumi Sekhukhune, came on.
A few years ago, Virat Kohli had said cover drives are therapeutic. Casual, laidback and lazy, Smriti still showed the how’s and why’s of that statement. She was threading the covers and extra-covers like a shooting star in a sky with million stars. All that one could was watch and mutter – ooh, woah, wow. Or just gasp in disbelief at the subtlety of her wrists, the mild-thuds and the rustling of the leaves of grass.
At the other end, Shafali was focused and the South African line of bowling straight helped her immensely. She likes the ball in front of her eyes. She is usually at her best playing straight. They served it straight to her. She curbed her instincts initially, and drove straight and on the ground, whenever the ball was pitched up, except for one swat for a six.
Both the batters were focussed, and mostly pressed forward to drive through the gaps, and were a bit helped by clumsy fielding by their opponents. Both had peppered the boundary with ease by the time they got to their fifties, and shortly thereafter to lunch. South Africa Captain Laura Wolvaardt was largely invisible.
Post-lunch, the sun and the Indian openers came out in all glory. Both batted with complete freedom. They cut, pulled, swivelled, lofted, slogged with gay abandon. It was a brutal display of batting. The opponents were condemned to constantly retrieve the ball from behind the ropes. It was a magical afternoon, except for a shortened pull by Mandhana that just fell short of Kapp at square leg. Neither the batter nor the fielder expected Dercksen to bowl short. Then they bowled short, wide, straight, full but what the South African women could not was to bowl the length, consistently. The batters were hitting so beautifully by now, even the lapse of a couple of inches cost them dearly. In about ten overs after lunch, both the openers hit their centuries one after another to the delight of the crowd, that was for some strange reason, confined to one side of the ground by the cricketing authorities. Shafali took 113 balls to get to the century mark, the fastest in women’s Test.
Soon, Shafali and Smriti were racing each other to the 150 mark when the first wicket fell. They were like mad dancers on a delightful afternoon, one a ballerina and the other, a passista. And, they were doing a tango. So passionate and ignited. They put together a gargantuan opening stand of 292 runs, the highest opening partnership in women’s Tests, the highest stand for India in any position in the format and the second-highest partnership in the women’s international red-ball history.
Though the crowd had majorly come for Smriti, after watching her two centuries and one nearly-a-century in Bengaluru in the ODI series leading to the test match, Shafali matched her with intent, purpose and sheer stroke play. There was just one blip. Delmari Tucker, the off spinner who was carted all over by both the batters, in three random balls, disturbed Smriti’s rhythm from Wallajah Road end, with the right length and turn. On the fourth, she got one to sniff the outside edge of Smriti’s bat and the crowd and the elegant personified southpaw had to contend with a 149. Everyone knew she had missed out on a double century. But Shafali was still there, fearless, and flawless.
Shubha S. came in and perhaps played the shot of the day. The southpaw on drove Nadine for a boundary which mostly went unnoticed. Soon, she perished to Nadine, who dived all over the ground to stop runs. Shubha was the only batter to miss out on the magnificent day for batters. The diminutive Jemima Rodriques walked in and started owning the afternoon, farming the strike. She cut late on both sides for four boundaries and Shafali was confined to taking singles. Her building rage could be sensed from far away. Soon, she swatted and then straight drove for two boundaries in successive overs and when Tucker was brought in from the pavilion end, she smacked her over long on for two successive sixes to move to 199. The next ball, she celebrated her double century. It was like a long promise fulfilled.
Chennai crowd never forgets its memories. Sehwag and Karan Nair had scored triple centuries at the same ground. Shafali was in the reckoning. Sadly, Jemima ran her out. Coming down the wicket, she hit straight to mid-on and ran to the danger end leaving Shafali confused. She did it earlier once driving to the covers but Shafali had narrowly escaped. When she responded this time, the bowler was in front of her. When she started the run, Jemima had come almost close to her. The double-centurion could not refuse, went for a non-existing run. She could have turned Jemima back but did not. She sacrificed her wicket and the triple century has to wait for some other glorious day. It was a tragic end to what was truly a magnificent knock. Chepauk honoured it with a standing ovation.
After captain Harmanpreet Kaur walked in, the afternoon just meandered, waiting for Jemima’s half-century which duly came. While the cricket writers were finding it hard to forget what had happened a little earlier, the crowd had no such inhibitions with its celebrations. It cheered her fifty. Soon, she skied one to short cover to deny herself an easy century.
Half of the crowd thought that the day had come to and end and started leaving but the misery of the South Africans piled and continued till the day’s end. The team’s most reliable pinch-hitter, wicketkeeper batter Richa Ghosh started belting boundaries everywhere at T20 strike-rate. She treated the spinners and the pacers, the second new ball had been taken, with utter disdain. It was a day when the red ball truly learnt what it is to feel the middle of the bat, and to be whacked all around the park.
Tomorrow is a new day. It could wake up to two more centuries and / or an early declaration. It is also the weekend. If the last two tests are a testament, then the Indian tweakers could own it. Chepauk and its cricketing connoisseurs will be there, as witness to another everlasting cricketing tale.
