DUBAI: The first ball Asha Sobhana bowled to Suzie Bates felt more like a move on a chessboard. A short ball wide of off stump, for which Bates came down the wicket before realising the turn, and nudged it towards cover.
Experience from both ends but at different levels of course. Bates, playing her ninth T20 World Cup, while Asha, on her ICC event debut. Eventually, the leg-spinner did give India the breakthrough they desperately needed with the wicket of Georgia Plimmer, who was batting with a strike rate of 150 and New Zealand were cruising. She gave away just 22 runs in her four overs, with Sophie Devine's fighting fifty taking the White Ferns to 160/4.
Almost an hour later, Asha was in the middle with the bat at the Dubai International Stadium, with the scoreboard reading 90/8 as India were chasing 161 in their opening game of the tournament. India would eventually fall short by 58 runs as Lea Tahuhu (3/15) and Rosemary Mair (4/19) ran through the batting line-up. Not the kind of start Asha or India would have wanted in their World Cup campaign.
The international cricket journey that started against Bangladesh early in the year gave glimpses of what to expect from Asha. With butterflies in her stomach she patiently waited for her chance and dismissed Nigar Sultana Joty to take her first international wicket. "It rained the whole night and the ground staff, and everyone tried their best to make it happen. The ground was really good," she told this daily earlier. "Though it rained for like 40 minutes, the ground was ready to play. So I was really happy. I was feeling really nice about that wicket. I was really lucky enough to get Sultana's wicket as my first wicket. And the wicket also also was helping me and my only plan was to go to the right areas. The result was there, I was very happy," she added.
Till then, Asha had only watched the Indian team from a distance or watched them on television. When she was welcomed in this squad with open arms, well, she embraced it like anything. "It's a wonderful feeling, you know, when we watch on TV, the Indian team plays it. So they play such a beautiful brand of cricket and playing in that team among somebody like Harmanpreet Kaur, Jemimah Rodrigues, I thought, you know, Indian team, international team, they'll be really serious about the game and all, but they were cool. We didn't have the feeling that it was the first time with the Indian team. It was like we were already there in the team," Asha was full of praise for her teammates.
Even today, at the Dubai International Stadium, once she took the wicket of Plimmer, her much adored Leandro Trossard-like celebration was there for everyone to see. Asha, an ardent fan of the Premier League club, knows what fans go through to support their favourite teams. And her story with the club is an old one.
"When Arsene Wenger was there as a manager from the time I started following Arsenal before that I used to watch matches here and there, I never supported any club since Thierry Henry was there. I used to watch a lot of matches of Thierry Henry, you know, a legend. But from the time, you know, when I met all these people from 2012/13, I started watching, I started following and I was a great fan of Lukas Podolski. that time they just won the World Cup for Germany and I was a fan of Lukas. I followed him and I saw him playing for Arsenal and all of those players were amazing players. Watching premier league matches and all then I slowly fell in love with the passion of that club. That club has something, I mean, their fans are something else. I can easily connect with the RCB fans, because of that. They are very loyal fans from the past 20 years. They don't have any trophies in premier league trophies, but their fans are the most loyal fans."
The veteran of the Indian domestic setup has tried to be a sponge at every domestic she has played for. And maybe it has led to the results she has been getting at these levels. "Domestic cricket in India is tough because we have more than 20 sides with quality players. Every team will have two or three Indian players, zonal players, and somebody who played for the Challenger trophy. Playing from Railways helped me to be mentally strong and perform. Playing from Kerala helped me, as a leader, to show the juniors how to go about it. Pondicherry helped me grow. When you keep performing at the domestic level continuously, the result will come. Maybe it will take some time, but the result will come," Asha tells TNIE.
The result did not go India's way in the opening match and a 58-run defeat would hurt the net run-rate in what is already a tough group with Australia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka yet to come. The Indian team and Asha, who made the most of her World Cup debut, would know that all too well. The good thing is that they do not have time to sulk and will be taking the field against Pakistan tomorrow. And come that match, which is an afternoon game, Asha would be itching to make a bigger impact for the Indian team.