VISAKHAPATNAM: Long after every other team member who had turned up for training at the ACA-VDCA Stadium on Friday, Smriti Mandhana got padded up and went in for a second batting session. She had originally batted with Harmanpreet Kaur earlier before trying to hit some big shots into the stands off under-arm throws from Renuka Singh Thakur and Radha Yadav.
Mandhana was in the middle of the nets, facing throw-downs from support staff and net bowlers. This time, from the outside, it seemed like she was looking to get the feeling of timing the ball well. She defended, took the off-spinner from the net bowlers down the ground and tried to hit every ball at some point of the stint.
For someone who has scored more runs in 2025 than anyone has ever in a calendar year, Mandhana has had a rough start to the World Cup. Her scores — 8, 23, and 23 — are in stark contrast to the way she was batting until the third ODI against Australia, where she hit the fastest century by an Indian (across men and women) in the format. She did not participate in either warm-up games and has since struggled to get herself going. Against South Africa, she seemed very tentative in the beginning before charging at Ayabonga Khaka to break free. That innings, too, did not last long.
Understandably, she was the first to turn up for batting on Friday after the loss. And she batted more time than anybody else before eventually walking off around 8.30 PM. No one knows the significance of Sunday’s clash against Australia more than Mandhana. She knows how important her runs are for the team to have a chance at beating the defending champions at a World Cup.
The last time Australia lost in a WC was during the 2017 semifinal defeat against India, where Harmanpreet scored an unbeaten 171. Australia captain Alyssa Healy let out a chuckle when asked about that match on Saturday. “I've forgotten a lot about the game, but you guys are pretty good at putting it on the Telly (television) at every opportunity possible. So it brings back memories a little bit,” she laughed, before adding, “I think we've spoken a lot about how it drove us to rethink our standards and the way we wanted to approach our cricket. For me personally, it gave me an opportunity to open the batting moving forward. For our team, it just made us rethink what we were doing and how we could do it better. We've been really successful since that point. We keep reassessing at different moments in time. Teams are continually not catching us, matching us at every opportunity they can. It's more about a discussion for us, how we keep raising the bar and be better ourselves.”
Such has been the bar set by Australia that they have lost only six ODIs while winning 68 games since the 2017 World Cup. India have managed to beat them only twice in the last eight years. And in both those games, the top three set the platform. Shafali Verma and Yastika Bhatia scored fifties in Mackay four years ago, while Mandhana hit a century last month in New Chandigarh. Which is why the top-order, especially Mandhana, becomes all the more crucial for India.
If Mandhana sweated it all out on Friday, two days ahead of the match, her opening partner, Pratika Rawal, spent a lot of time batting in the nets. In fact, Rawal, Jemimah Rodrigues and Uma Chettry were the only ones to train on Saturday. Even as they tried to get into the groove and go into the clash confident, all-rounder Sneh Rana backed Mandhana and the rest to come good. “Ups and downs are part and parcel of the game; they can happen anytime. But we have some of the best batters in the world on our side. It’s just a matter of one good knock, and I’m hopeful they’ll bounce back very soon,” said Rana.
And India will be hoping that it happens against Australia with the likes of Mandhana, Harmanpreet and Rodrigues coming good. For against a team like Australia, a rescue act will not be enough, and they will need a lot more from the top-order to put on a spectacle in front of what is expected to be a sell-out crowd on Sunday.
