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Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma redefine history: Achieve what never was done in Indian cricket before
Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma set a new record for the highest opening partnership in a World Cup knockout match for India.
It is essential for a team to have a good opening partnership to win major tournaments in cricket. The job of the openers is to generally lay the foundation for the middle-order and the big hitters to take advantage of. The two Indian openers, Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma, were seen doing exactly this in the ongoing final match of the Women’s ODI World Cup between India and South Africa.
Notably, South Africa won the toss for the match and put India to bat on a rainy day in Mumbai. Laura Wolvaardt would have hoped to get some early wickets and put India on the back foot. However, Smriti and Shafali ensured that India got off to a flying start. The duo put together a partnership of 104 runs for the opening wicket in 17.4 overs.
As the duo brought up the century stand, they became the first set of openers to achieve the feat for India in a World Cup knockout game, Men’s and Women’s cricket combined.
India vs South Africa Live Score, Women's World Cup Final
The first 100 at the top
Notably, the previous best partnership at the top for Indian women in ODI World Cup knockout matches was 20 between S Harikrishna and Purnima Rau. When it comes to T20I and ODIs combined, the highest before this was between Smriti Mandhana and Taniya Bhatia. They had a partnership of 43 runs against England in the 2018 T20 World Cup. Verma and Mandhana have cleared the previous record by a mile.
How does it compare with men’s cricket?
The highest opening stand for India in a Men’s ODI World Cup is between Navjot Singh Sidhu and Sachin Tendulkar. The duo scored 90 runs against Pakistan in the Quarterfinal of the 1996 World Cup. The partnership between Mandhana and Verma has gone beyond that partnership and now stands as the highest for India in a World Cup knock-out match.
Rank | Opening pair | Runs (High) | Team | Format | Stage |
1 | Smriti Mandhana – Shafali Verma | 104 | Women | ODI | Final |
2 | Navjot Sidhu – Sachin Tendulkar | 90 | Men | ODI | QF |
3 | Shikhar Dhawan – Rohit Sharma | 76 | Men | ODI | QF |
4 | Virender Sehwag – Sachin Tendulkar | 74 | Men | ODI | SF |
5 | Rohit Sharma – Shubman Gill | 71 | Men | ODI | SF |
The significance of this partnership lies in the fact that the duo were never slated to be doing the job together in this tournament. Pratika Rawal was designated to be Smriti’s partner, and she played the role in the group stage. But the right-handed batter suffered a freakish ankle injury in the game against Bangladesh and was ruled out of the tournament. This saw Shafali Verma being drafted into the squad for the semi-final and final. Verma failed to impress in the semi-final against Australia; however, she was fired and did her job on the night that mattered.
