CAPE TOWN: "EK aur daal dho please (one more ball, please),” says Shafali Verma to Shikha Pandey in one of the nets at the Newlands Stadium on Wednesday morning. You can feel the heat with the Sun beating down, but inside the nets, Verma was feeling a different kind of heat. She was just beaten by a sharp bouncer from Pandey. The 33-year-old had trapped Verma on the pads, beaten and taken the outside edge of Smriti Mandhana, and was steaming in since the session began.
Pandey obliged. The next bouncer was a top-edge as Verma shuffled across to pull it. Pandey mixed it up with some good length deliveries as well before coming out with the third which Verma played to perfection. When it seemed like Pandey was asking if Verma was able to read it from her hand, the batter replied that because it was only on knee height, it was easier — both walked back to their crease with a smile.
In the adjacent net, Jemimah Rodrigues was facing throwdowns to perfect her drives and shots down the ground. Batting coach Hrishkesh Kanitkar was constantly in Verma and Rodrigues’ ears, asking the former to play her natural game. The latter has been constantly picking his brain through the tournament. Rodrigues, often, is among the first to enter the nets and last to leave. At the other end of the nets was bowling coach Troy Cooley, with a keen eye on each bowler in the nets.
While some of the first XI players, including captain Harmanpreet Kaur, skipped the optional practice session, the preparations were intense. They know the challenge that lies ahead; Australia. They know what is at stake and what they need to do to have a chance at beating a team that has technically lost only two T20Is since the previous World Cup.
Before even getting into the nets, they had a 30-minute-long fielding as well as catching session on the main ground. And in the nets, Rajeshwari Gayakwad was bowling at the stumps, trying to get her releases and variations right while discussing with Cooley. Richa Ghosh was basically doing what she does in the match — hitting bowlers out of nets while holding her shape.
In fact, it was the teenager who addressed the media ahead of the semifinal of the T20 World Cup. As she does on the field, Ghosh was oozing confidence in front of a microphone as well. “We can beat Australia; it's not as if they can't be beaten,” said the wicketkeeper-batter. “We had defeated them in a match during the T20I series in India in December and have beaten them earlier too. Sure, they are a strong team, but we can beat them.”
Just before she turned up for the press conference, she, along with her teammates, were practicing for every bowler in the Australian line-up. Every time a type of bowler was bowling, comparisons were made to a similar bowler from the opposite side and what should be expected in the match — off-spin, leg-spin, left-arm, pace, you name it, they did it all. When asked if India found any kind of weaknesses at all in this Australian side, Ghosh kept her cards close. “Yes, we have worked out the weak spots and planned for that too. But if we share the weak points, they will obviously be ready. So, I don't want them to be prepared for anything right now and help them get any information,” she smiled.
At the other end of the spectrum, Australian captain Meg Lanning was not taking anything for granted at all. They beat India in the 2020 T20 World Cup final and the 2022 Commonwealth Games final, but for Lanning, none of that matters. “Both teams start at the same level tomorrow (Thursday) when we come out and play. What's happened in the past doesn't make a difference. We need to come out and play our best cricket and play the way that we want to,” said the 30-year-old.
In their nets, Ashleigh Gardner was working on her lines and lengths — the contest between her and Mandhana is one to watch — while Darcie Brown and Heather Graham were practicing yorkers with a marker on the batting crease. Despite the depth of their line-up they, too, know that if there is a team that could get better of them on a given day, it is India. They have been there before in the 2017 ODI World Cup semifinal.
Things can go either way. The key, however, is that both teams are doing everything in their power to put on a show. And at some level, the group that has the last laugh on Thursday could be the one that goes all the way. Who has a better chance? As Ghosh said, the one who is mentally strong on the day and plays to their full potential will.
