Navi Mumbai: Openers Smriti Mandhana and Pratika Rawal struck contrasting centuries and shared a massive 212-run partnership as India piled on 340/3 against New Zealand in a rain-interrupted 49-overs-a-side match of the ICC Women’s ODI World Cup 2025 at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Thursday.
While Smriti Mandhana was aggressive in her approach and hammered ten boundaries and three sixes in her 109 off 95 balls, Pratika dropped the anchor and compiled a superb 122 off 134 balls, hitting 13 boundaries and two sixes as India made hay on a pristine, dry pitch that was quite good for batting. Mandhana scored her 14th hundred in ODIs, Rawal compiled her second ODI hundred and first in the World Cup.
India’s much-maligned top order finally came good as Jemimah Rodrigues, brought into the playing XI in place of Amanjot Kaur, built on the foundation laid by Mandhana and Rawal as she scored a blazing half-century to give the innings a final push. The Mumbai batter blazed to fifty off 38 balls. With two overs remaining in the Indian innings, the match was interrupted by a short, sharp spell of rain. The passing drizzle kept the players inside the dugouts for more than an hour, docking one over from each innings and reducing the mid-innings break to 10 minutes.
After a slow start in which they crawled to 40/0 in the Power-play, India scored 75 runs in the next 10 overs (11th to 20th) and 73 in the overs between 21st to 30th), while 66/1 came off overs between 31-40.
Asked to bat first, Mandhana and Rawal started cautiously before exploding into action. Mandhana was the first to reach her fifty off 49 balls, hitting four boundaries and two sixes.
The 29-year-old Mandhana, who was given out lbw of Amelia Kerr but was saved by DRS, reached her 14th career century off 88 balls, hammering 10 fours and three sixes, putting up another batting masterclass in a match that India needs to win to qualify for the semifinals.
The batter from Maharashtra produced a brilliant display of stroke-play, cutting, driving, and pulling with ease as she dominated the bowling. She struck New Zealand skipper Sophie Devine for two boundaries in an over and was quite severe on Amelia Kerr, hammering her for a four and six off successive balls in the 29th over. Two of her four sixes came off Amelia Kerr, while Jess Kerr and Eden Carson suffered one each.
She was eventually out for 109 off 95 (10×4, 4×6), miscuing a slog-sweep to substitute fielder Hannah Rowe at midwicket off Suzie Bates, a tired-looking short that the fielder grasped on the second attempt.
The 25-year-old Rawal dropped anchor early, playing an able foil to the aggressive Mandhana. She reached her fifty off 75 balls, hitting seven fours. In the process, the batter from Delhi equalled a world record, becoming the joint-fastest to 1000 career runs, reaching the milestone in 23 innings. She equalled Australia’s Lindsay Reeler’s 37-year-old record, who reached the milestone in just 23 innings.
Mandhana and Rawal raised a massive partnership of 212 runs for the first wicket, the highest for India in ODIs. This was their fourth 150-plus stand in ODIs, joint-most by any pair, alongside Belinda Clark-Lisa Keightley and Suzie Bates-Amy Satterthwaite. This was their seventh century stand in ODIs, the joint-most for an Indian pair.
Rawal reached her century off 122 balls, hitting 13 fours. She executed some superb shots after reaching the three-figure mark, including two sixes, and raised 76 runs for the second wicket partnership with Jemimah Rodrigues. Jemimah struck some superb shots, including 11 fours, and raised 48 runs for the third wicket with skipper Harmanpreet Kaur (10).
New Zealand skipper Sophie Devine used seven bowlers, but none were able to trouble the Indian batters because of the lack of support from the surface.
Brief scores: India 340/3 in 49 overs (Smriti Mandhana 109, Pratika Rawal 122, Jemimah Rodrigues 76 not out; Suzie Bates 1-40, Rosemary Mair 1-52) against New Zealand.
(IANS)
