Before the ODI series began, captain Harmanpreet Kaur spoke of a happy headache when it comes to selection, thanks to India’s widening talent pool. Her personal form, however, wasn’t a headache of the happy kind, though India were making up for her lack of runs elsewhere. Harmanpreet’s returns in the T20I series were 1, 23, 26 and 15. Then in the ODIs, she scored 17 and 7 in the first two games. With the ODI World Cup around the corner, the skipper would have dearly liked to spend some time in the middle and get some form going. She did just that in the final outing of the tour, scoring a sensational century in the third ODI at Chester-le-Street.
If it was the senior-most player delivering with the bat, the second half witnessed a youngster making a massive statement for herself: 21-year-old right-arm pacer Kranti Goud picked up six wickets as England’s run-chase of 319 fell short by just 14 runs. Harmanpreet’s ton and Kranti’s six-for took India to a 13-run win on the day and a 2-1 triumph in the series overall.
After atypically having success at the toss – finally getting it right on this tour – Harmanpreet came up with a typical Harmanpreet knock. Walking into bat at 81/2 in the 18th over, she took her time to get her eye in. Sophie Ecclestone was in the middle of a miserly spell, India had just lost the wicket of Smriti Mandhana, and Harleen Deol wasn’t exactly setting the ground alight.
💯% 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗲 🔥
Harmanpreet Kaur registers yet another 𝕋𝕆ℕ as 🇮🇳 post 318/5 against 🏴 in the series decider.
Can they defend it? Watch the chase unfold LIVE on FanCode NOW 📲#EngvsInd pic.twitter.com/XaMuVPexoj
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Harmanpreet’s general innings construction consists of a slow start, then steady acceleration through the middle overs and a final flourish. She was on 0 for 10 balls, before the first of many flowing cover drives was struck for four.
When Nat Sciver-Brunt brought back Ecclestone for her final three overs in a bid to get the Indian skipper out, Harmanpreet responded with a couple more cover drives for boundaries. By the time Ecclestone was bowled out after the 34th over, Harmanpreet was well set on 39 off 48 balls. The base was set.
By the 43rd over – with Jemimah Rodrigues for company and already taking the attack to England – Harmanpreet’s strike rate had gone past a-run-a-ball. From 50 off 54 balls, her next 50 came off just 28 balls, an 82-ball century being the fastest of her seven in this format. It was also her third in England, as many as she has scored in India.
The century was also an exhibition of Harmanpreet’s range around the ground. The sweep shot might be one of her favourites, and it had almost become a predictable go-to weapon, even to just get off strike. Just three of her 14 boundaries came in the region between fine leg and square leg; on the offside, she hit eight fours compared to her usually preferred leg-side heavy count (6). The cuts and drives were peppered through her innings, and she tried to hit with a straight bat most of the time.
“In the ODI cricket we’ve been playing for the last couple of years, we’ve always focused on scoring more than 300 with the bat,” Harmanpreet had said before the series. “It gives the bowlers some cushioning. When we’re batting, we want to look for more than 300 and when we’re bowling, we have good bowling options so that there’s no extra pressure on any one bowler.”
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That India were able to get past 300 was courtesy a 77-ball 110-run stand between Harmanpreet and Jemimah, with the latter once more providing the nitro boost to the Indian middle order at No.5. In her 50th ODI, the Mumbaikar made a boundary-filled 50. The finishing touch came from Richa Ghosh. The platform was once again laid by a solid opening stand between Mandhana and Pratika Rawal, but if 300 is the benchmark India are aspiring to in this format every time they bat first, it was only possible because of the well-timed, and well-calculated, acceleration at the back-end.
Kranti’s day out
In the run-chase, England were off to the worst possible start as Kranti once again impressed with the new ball. She picked up both England openers quickly for the second time in the series (just as she had done in Southampton in the opener). It was once again the nip-backer from a good length that accounted for Tammy Beaumont, bowled through the gates with one that came in sharply. Shortly after, a superb diving catch at short third from Deepti Sharma gave the pacer her second of the day as Amy Jones fell early too. What followed was a laborious powerplay for England as captain Nat Sciver-Brunt and Emma Lamb tried to steady the ship. Between Overs 5 and 9, England managed just 5 runs with Sneh Rana slipping in a couple of maiden overs too, while Kranti held her impressive line and length.
England did regroup from that nightmare start as Sciver-Brunt kept them alive in the game. But her dismissal on 98, caught-behind off Deepti Sharma’s bowling, kept India ahead of the 8-ball. The hopes of a record-chase were still flickering for England when Kranti came back for her final spell, where she accounted for four more wickets: Charlie Dean, Alice Davidson-Richards, Lauren Filer and Lauren Bell. India’s sharper fielding, led by the brilliant Jemimah Rodrigues, was also a difference-maker in a match that was eventually decided by fine margins. It was the cushion of scoring big in the first innings which Harmanpreet spoke about before the series that came in handy in the end.
