Mandhana, Richa, Deepti, Jemimah: how India’s four are faring in the women’s Hundred

Deepti Sharma and Jemimah Rodrigues line up against each other at Headingley on Saturday, first ball at 3.30pm IST, and it is the first time two of India’s four women at this year’s Hundred have shared a field. Four players, three different franchises. That is the shape of India’s involvement in the competition this year, and after the month they have just had, the timing is not the worst thing that could have happened to them.

Where they all ended up

Smriti Mandhana and Richa Ghosh are together at Manchester Super Giants, under Meg Lanning. Deepti went to Sunrisers Leeds, who are the defending women’s champions and are captained by Dani Gibson. Jemimah is at Southern Brave with Sophie Molineux in charge. The tournament runs until 16 August, so there is a month of this.

The split is worth noting because only one Indian pair shares a team, and the other two cannot hide behind a compatriot at all. Mandhana and Richa know each other’s game inside out from Bengaluru. The other two are on their own.

Week one went well, mostly

Deepti had the best of it. Sunrisers opened their title defence against MI London at the Kia Oval on 21 July and won by seven wickets, and she took 2 for 20 in a bowling effort that held MI London to 107 for 8. One of them was a caught and bowled to remove Hayley Matthews, which is about as good a wicket as there is to take in this format.

Jemimah’s contribution the following day was not with the bat. Southern Brave defended 126 against Welsh Fire and won by eight runs, and the moment that turned it was a direct hit from Jemimah to run out Freya Kemp, who had made 39 off 29 and looked like she was going to finish the job. Fielding wins these games more often than people admit.

Then Manchester Super Giants went to Lord’s on 23 July and bowled London Spirit out for 80. Ryana MacDonald-Gay took 4 for 17. Mandhana opened and made 17 before Marizanne Kapp trapped her lbw, and Richa came in at the end and hit 15 not out off five balls to help finish a chase that took 59 deliveries. Seven-wicket win, no drama.

So: three wins from three involving Indian players, and none of them decided by an Indian batter. Make of that what you will. Mandhana’s 17 is the one number in there that will bother her.

What a month in England is for right now

India were knocked out of the Women’s T20 World Cup at the group stage on 28 June, which is the second edition in a row they have gone out at that point. The way it happened is what stung. India made 170 for 4 at Lord’s with Harmanpreet Kaur hitting 56 off 27 and Mandhana making 38, and Australia chased 171 down with six wickets and an over in hand. Ellyse Perry made 56, Ashleigh Gardner 53 not out, and the two of them put on 100 for the fourth wicket. It was the biggest chase in the history of the women’s T20 World Cup. India finished third in Group 1.

You cannot fix that in a franchise tournament. What you can do is play a lot of high-pressure cricket in English conditions against most of the same players who beat you, which is not nothing when the alternative is going home and waiting. Deepti bowling 20 balls a night at batters like Hayley Matthews is more useful preparation than any camp.

The one I will be watching is Mandhana. She was India’s leading run-scorer at the World Cup and she still walked off at Lord’s having lost, and there is a version of the next four weeks where she goes through this competition making the sort of scores that change how a summer is remembered. Seventeen off the top at Lord’s was not that. There is time.

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