Thakor makes a mark on debut to give India 1-0 lead
New Zealand’s spinners had restricted India to 227, but the visitors couldn’t get any momentum going in the chase
India 227 (Hasabnis 42, Deepti 41, Amelia Kerr 4-42, Jess Kerr 3-49) beat New Zealand 168 (Halliday 39, Green 31, Radha 3-35, Thakor 2-26) by 59 runs
New Zealand were riding high off a maiden Women’s T20 World Cup win and their spinners combined to take seven of the ten Indian wickets to limit them to 227. But India’s ODI debutants, Tejal Hasabnis and Saima Thakor, shone in crucial moments to help them make a winning start to the three-match series against New Zealand here.
Maharashtra middle-order batter Hasabnis played a steady innings at No. 6 walking in after India were in a spot of bother. She made 42 off 64 balls and was involved in a 61-run partnership. Then Thakor, Mumbai’s bowling allrounder who played for UP Warriorz in WPL 2024, delivered telling blows with the ball to help dismiss New Zealand for 168 and help India go 1-0.
Amelia Kerr and Eden Carson continued from where they had left off during the T20 World Cup. Ample, who was the Player of the Tournament for that tournament, bowled four for 42 while Carson, who had entered the title-clash on the back of two performances for which she was adjudged the Player of the Match, took two wickets. Suzie Bates too chipped in with five overs and a wicket. India, it seemed, had left a few runs on a surface that looked good for batting.
That seemed all the more to be the case when Georgia Plimmer got off to a flier. She hit a flurry of boundaries off Thakor and Renuka Singh, both of whom erred by bowling on her pads. The idea was not all wrong – Thakor was getting the ball to shape away, and hence was trying for the magic ball. There was some sense to her bowling plan after it came good on third ball in internationals. She got one to nip away ever-so-slightly to elicit a poke from Bates and feather an edge back.
Renuka used the width of the bowling crease to bowl the in-anglers but it played into the hands of Plimmer and Lauren Down, batting at No. 3 after Amelia was seen limping towards the end of the bowling innings. But Deepti Sharma then used her experience to prise out Plimmer. She slowed the flighted ball down and made the batter force the issue, only for her to chip a return catch back.
Her street-smartness then helped India see the back of New Zealand captain Sophie Devine. Devine, who had resigned from T20I captaincy after the T20 World Cup, pushed one towards Deepti but stood out of her crease. Deepti threw the ball back at wicketkeeper Yastika Bhatia even as Devine took a few steps back, but no part of her foot was inside the crease.
It was then that Radha could get Down miscue one to mid-off an over after a leading edge landed short of the same region. From there on, it was New Zealand taking control with the bat. Brooke Halliday and Maddy Green played a clinical game together. They made frequent use of the crease to manufacture boundaries regularly-most of them behind square on either side.
Green first took one fine down leg, cut one fiercely past backward point and then sliced one over the same region. Halliday even used the reverse sweep early. They added 49 off 63 balls for the fifth wicket. Smriti Mandhana, captaining India after Harmanpreet Kaur missed out due to a niggle, brought in Shafali Verma in a bid to change a few things but she was hit for a couple of fours in an over.
Finally, it was Thakor who broke through in the third over of her second spell. She got one to stop on Halliday and managed to catch hold of the caught and bowled chance. Three balls later, Mandhana nailed a direct hit at the striker’s end to send Green back. And from thereon, there was no looking back for India. They struck regularly, except for Amelia’s 55-ball stand with Isabella Gaze for the eighth wicket which delayed the inevitable.
READ ALSO: 15 Best places in Europe for a perfect family trip
READ ALSO: Top 15 best things to do in Seattle (2024)
Not the best start, though, for Mandhana, who was making her first ODI captaincy debut. She fell cheaply, cutting one straight to backward point. But Shafali looked to bring a gear that we hardly saw at the T20 World Cup, particularly targeting Jess Kerr. She used the pull shot to good effect and then dispatched a length ball over the sightscreen. But she drove Carson’s first ball straight to square leg to fall cheaply.
A couple of 20-something partnerships followed – first between Bhatia and Dayalan Hemalatha, who batted at No. 4 in Harmanpreet’s absence, and then between Bhatia and Jemimah Rodrigues. It was only when Rodrigues combined with Hasabnis that there came a sense of stability in the Indian batting.
The couple were particularly comfortable against spin, playing the ball in the outfield to keep ticking the scorecard. Hasabnis showed her mettle against spin particularly as she went deep in the crease against Amelia’s legspin to slice past backward point. The couple maintained the pace, adding to their kitty as they continued in their 61-run partnership in just 70 balls.
But Rodrigues missed a clip off Bates and was adjudged lbw, the review returning an umpire’s call on impact. Then on 42, Hasabnis could not resist charging at a tossed-up delivery from Amelia and was stumped. Deepti, who walked in at No. 7, showed a lot of intent from the start. She hit a couple of fours and a six in her 41, her best score in ODIs since September 2022. Her innings capsulated the theme of India’s innings – that of batters getting starts but not carrying on. Five India batters made more than 30 but none crossed 42.
India were 125 dots in the 44.3 overs they batted; New Zealand 141 in their 40.4. Still, it came down to the team that committed fewer mistakes and India, despite finishing on what can at best be termed a par score, took the honours that mattered in the series-opener, winning just their second ODI in the last eight outings against New Zealand.