BIPIN DANI
On the opening day of the four-day D/N pink ball Test against Australia, India's Smriti Mandhana was unbeaten on 80 runs. Any player would have a sleepless night with anxiety on scoring a hundred the next morning.
Her childhood coach and mentor Anant Tambvekar sent her a text message on WhatsApp, which read: Go for big daddy hundred with an emoji sign.
Within minutes, Smriti replied Yes and two emoji signs.
The coach further chatted and motivated saying, '' you must score a hundred, '' to which Smriti replied: '' Haan, Mai bhi serious hu (Yes, I am also serious (on putting up a hundred)".
Smriti did so on Friday. The first Indian batter to face a pink ball in Test became the first Indian centurion and that too on Australian soil.
"First Test hundred is always special for any player and if it is in the pink ball Test it is definitely a proud moment for all of us", the coach and mentor Tambvekar, speaking exclusively over the telephone from Nagpur, where he is a coach of the Goa team playing, said.
"I am sure Smriti would have had a sound sleep (when she was unbeaten on 80 on the previous day). She had for sure. She is mentally very strong".
Apart from Smriti's hundred, it was Punam Raut’s walking off the field when the umpire had ruled not out that stood out on the second day of the day-night Test.
Raut’s decision to walk, that too in the absence of the DRS in the Test match, reignited the debate over the ‘spirit of cricket’, triggered by India player Ravichandran Ashwin. Australian opener Beth Mooney said that there was “no chance” she would have done the same when asked by one of the commentators.
The incident happened in the 81st over of India’s innings when Raut, batting on 36, decided to “walk” without any hesitation after believing to have nicked Sophie Molineux behind to ’keeper Alyssa Healy.
As umpire Phillip Gillespie shook his head signalling not out, Raut simply walked off all the way to the pavilion without looking back, rediscovering the long-lost art of walking in Test cricket.
