NAVI MUMBAI: How do you break a slowing-moving partnership that is looking increasingly threatening with every passing delivery? Well, you take your chances when they come. It may come in the form of a sharp catch or magic ball that does something off the pitch or a skillful runout that cuts the momentum.
If you have someone like Pooja Vastrakar at your disposal, you trust her to do her thing because history has shown that Vastrakar can change the course of the game in seconds. That is exactly what happened when she ran out Tammy Beaumont in the first innings of the one-off Test match against England at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.
Vastrakar's childhood coach, Ashutosh Shrivastava, who spotted her at the age of ten is not one bit surprised about the energy and enthusiasm she exudes on the field."We have a ground in Shahdol where a lot of kids used to play cricket. I saw one of the kids was playing exceptionally, hitting big sixes and all. I genuinely thought that kid was a boy, but when I asked more I realised that it was a girl with short hair. I asked her if she wanted to play cricket and she immediately said yes. I asked her to come the next day and we will have to work on her fitness. And she replied, 'sir I want to start from now'. She was the only girl amongst all the boys but the boys also helped her out and she adjusted very well," Shrivastava recalls.
Even back then, what struck the coach was her attitude towards the sport and not letting any adversity come between her and cricket. "We worked a lot on her batting in those days. Then she went to play in Rewa and later, she got a call-up for the Madhya Pradesh state team. In between this, she got injured, but she was one of the important players, so they asked her to start bowling. Once she came from those camps and matches for Madhya Pradesh, she told me they wanted her to bowl at the senior level. I said 'that's better, you can become a genuine all-rounder'. We kept working on her cricket. Even when her mother passed away, she didn't let a lot of people know about it. Even in the face of this tragedy, she kept practicing in a disciplined manner," says the coach.
That discipline and hard work she had put in all these years paid off when the 19-year-old made her debut for India in 2018. Even in her first-ever international innings at home in Vadodara, batting at nine, she showed her class with the bat and smashed 51 to take India to a respectable total against the likes of Ellyse Perry and Jess Jonassen.
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Four years later, in the ODI World Cup fixture against Pakistan, she stood up for her side with a partnership of 122 with Sneh Rana. Injury setbacks kept her in and out of the playing XIs for the longest time, but when the time came to make most of the home conditions, newly appointed head coach Amol Muzumdar and captain Harmanpreet Kaur made sure Vastrakar was part of the playing XI.
While she remained unbeaten with the bat, her feisty spell with the ball dismissed England captain Heather Knight. In the second innings, Vastrakar was on fire with the ball. Her line and length were persistent throughout her spell. Sophia Dunkley, who had survived a spell by Renuka Singh Thakur, was tempted by Vastrakar to cut only to be caught by Harleen Deol at gully.
Then came Natalie Sciver-Brunt, probably one of the players who could have threatened the Indian bowling attack. With the perfect length ball outside off, Vastrakar threaded the ball back in through the gap between bat and pad to dislodge England vice-captain's stumps on her very first ball. All of a sudden, India could smell a victory. And England's long-ish tail was exposed to face the wrath of Vastrakar, who finished with 3/23 in four overs as India registered a record 347-run victory.
Shrivastava credits her success with the red-ball to the time she spent playing age-group cricket in MP. "As a human being and as a cricketer, she is very mature. Even before turning for this big series, she came to the academy to practice with me. I don't think she will find it difficult to bowl with the red ball, because here in Madhya Pradesh players play with the red ball till the U19 level. And she has played with that red ball in the state. White ball is for the short format and it is based on momentum anyway. But in red-ball cricket, you have enough time to make a comeback. Even then, when you are coming off a long time in the field it can be hard, but her technique is very sound so I knew she would make the most of her opportunity," he adds.
Captain Harmanpreet was all praise for the all-rounder after the match. "The more long-format cricket you play, the more your skills improve. So, we wanted to back her (Vastrakar), especially for this Test. Because her confidence will increase as she bowls more," she said after India's 347-run win against England on Saturday.
"You don’t get much opportunity to develop your skills when you are playing short formats because you have to be accurate and the margin of error is very small. But in Test cricket, you can set your fields and try certain things. You start trusting your skills gradually. We saw throughout the two innings that her confidence was increasing and she gradually started picking wickets also. It’s about that game time you get that allows you to improve your skills and there cannot be a bigger opportunity than a Test match for a player to challenge themselves
"Our combinations are usually a mix of spin and pace. If you bring both pacers together, it becomes easier for the batters when spin is introduced from both ends together later on. I think every pacer wants to bowl with the new ball as you get movement and help with the new ball. As per the team plan, we have to give Renuka the opportunity with the new ball and Pooja understands that. She is ready to bowl the first change. Today the first 40 minutes were very important, but still, she was okay to bowl later on. Everything works according to the team plan. We trust her and that’s why she is in the team,” Harmanpreet added.
While not many from Madhya Pradesh have represented India at the international level, Vastrakar came with all the confidence in her abilities and skills. Bowling in home conditions could add pressure on anyone, however, that then 11-year-old kid who worked her way up and gave enough time and space to every level in her journey, was up for it as she helped India win a Test match on home soil after nine years.