When Ekta Bisht came on to bowl the seventh over on Thursday in Taunton, West Indies should have scented danger.
Spinners are not supposed to bowl within the Powerplay – that’s what conventional wisdom says. But Bisht is a genius when it comes to bowling when the field restrictions are in place. The first ball she bowled had Felicia Walters, used to the pacers, play her shot too early. The edge was readily lapped up by wicket-keeper Sushma Verma.
It was a portent of what was to follow.
Applying the squeeze
Ekta Bisht had got the first wicket and Mithali Raj had got medium-pacer Mona Meshram into the mix. That move itself had brought West Indies’ run rate, from ticking along well above 4.5 to below even four. So when the captain decided to go with the full force of her spin attack, West Indies should have felt their danger sense start to tingle.
They had no clue. They plunged from 68/1 in 18 to 94/6 in 35 overs. That’s 26 runs in 17 overs with a loss of five wickets. That’s not even respectable in Test cricket!
In their own respective ways, India’s spinners were outstandingly good. This wasn’t a collapse due to some unplayable bowling, but a result of good old-fashion discipline. A three-pronged attack of Ekta Bisht, Deepti Sharma and Poonam Yadav, aided admirably by Harmanpreet Kaur and Mona Meshram’s medium pace left West Indies with absolutely no breathing space. West Indies couldn’t hit a single boundary between the 15th and the 34th over – such was India’s spinners dominance.
The variety helped. Ekta Bisht is unfailingly and incredible accurate with her left-arm spin, the ball zoning in at the batter’s pads over and over again. Off-spinner Deepti Sharma controls the ball like a string, putting it right in the in-between legs. And if leg-spinners have a reputation for being a little wild, they should watch Poonam Yadav’s bowling today - 10 overs, one maiden, 19 runs and two wickets.
Together, the three spinners’ overall figures read 30-5-69-5. And that was where the match was won.
A spinner’s tale
But, it was also a case of Stafanie Taylor and West Indies shooting themselves in the foot. Because if they had just a cursory look at past history, they could have noticed a striking fact: these three spinners have played a massive role in India’s incredible record in their last 20 ODIs in which they’ve lost only once.
None among these three have an overall economy rate of more than 3.5 in this period. In fact, even 3.5 is a stretch, Bisht has an economy rate of 2.93 in this period, Sharma 3.00 and Yadav only 3.20. And it’s not just about the fact they have been miserly – all three of them average below 20 runs a wicket in this period. The figures are truly spectacular.
Some of these performances have been…for the lack of a better phrase, out of this world. Against Pakistan in February this year, Bisht took 5/8 in her 10 overs. In that same match, Sharma had figures of 1/6 in her 10 while Yadav took 0/7 in her seven overs. Sharma also took 6/20 in an ODI against Sri Lanka last year.
And they’re living up to the confidence shown in them by the captain. “Honestly everybody prefers to have extra fast bowlers in the side,” said Mithali Raj before the tournament started. “But India have always banked on spinners, irrespective of the wicket. Whether in Australia, South Africa (or elsewhere), spinners have done exceptionally well.”
On the evidence of their performance against West Indies and England too to a lesser degree, India’s biggest trump card is the trio of Bisht, Yadav and Sharma. Their performances over the last year and a half already indicate that, in tandem, they are worth their weight in gold. And if they can continue these kinds of performance, India will be in with more than just a shot at a glorious World Cup title.
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