CHENNAI: On Sunday evening, coach Shravan Kumar was in a hurry to get back home in Delhi. He did not want to miss his pupil — Nepal's Puja Mahato — batting against Pakistan in the ongoing Women's Asia Cup in Sri Lanka. Shravan reached in time to applaud Mahato when she walked out to bat in Dambulla.
At that time, the scoreboard read 40/4, with 10.4 overs to go. Mahato, along with Kabita Johi (31 n.o), put her foot down and slowly revived the innings. She scored 25 from 32 balls as Nepal finished with 108/6 in 20 overs.
Nepal might have lost by nine wickets, but on the day Mahato helped Nepal put up a fight. Shravan, the coach who has trained the likes of Ishant Sharma and Harshit Rana, remembers the first time she came to him for training at Rohtak road, Gymkhana Club. "She started coming for training with me when she was in school," Kumar told this daily.
"When she started I told her she could join but I would not take any money from her. She used to stay near my coaching centre. So there was no long commute for her and I think it worked for Puja well. Initially, I thought she was from Bihar, but then she told me that her family is from Nepal. I suggested she give it a shot, maybe she can play for the national side there. I think it is the coach’s responsibility to tell players what is better for them," the coach mentioned.
Mahato made her international debut for Nepal in the Women's T20 Quadrangular Series in Malaysia last year, which her team won. Earlier this year when Mahato and Rubina Chetry added a partnership of 166 runs against Maldives in the Women's Premier Cup organised by the Asian Cricket Council. To date, it is the highest partnership for the fifth wicket in women's cricket, while the highest for Nepal.
That win helped Nepal reach the semi final of the Premier Cup, which ultimately sealed their spot in the ongoing Asia Cup. In their first outing, Nepal beat UAE to register their first-ever win in the Asia Cup on Friday. Samjhana Khadka's 72 helped Nepal get over the line as Mahato watched her senior partner hit winning runs from the nonstriker's end.
Against Pakistan, a full-member nation, nerves did come in for the associate nation side, but Mahato held her own in the middle."I saw her batting today. I feel like she would have done better with the bat against Pakistan. I have seen her perform better before so I know how well she can bat. She got run out today, but I can understand, she had to take her chances. I feel like instead of 25 runs she scored today, she could have easily been able to score 35-40 runs," the coach added.
After coaching one member of the Mahato family to the national spot Kumar believes her siblings will soon follow. "She has three siblings. Two of her younger siblings are also involved in cricket. Her sister, Aarti, bowls left-arm spin and her brother, Krishna, bowls Right arm leg spin. Aarti also went to give trials recently for Nepal and she was part of the camp as well. Who knows, maybe her sister might also play for the national side," said the proud coach.
The result might not have gone Nepal's way but Kumar is proud of the work Mahato has put in to reach that level. Nepal's next fixture is against India on Tuesday. It would be interesting to see how Mahato and her team perform against the tournament favourites.
Brief scores: Nepal 108/6 in 20 ovs (Joshi 31, Mahato 25; Iqbal 2/19) lost to Pakistan 110/1 in 11.5 ovs (Feroza 57, Ali 46); India 201/5 in 20 ovs (Kaur 66, Ghosh 64 n.o.) bt UAE 123/7 in 20 ovs (Egodage 40 n.o.; Sharma 2/23).