India’s fielding takes a giant leap

SAFE HANDS Emphasis on speed and strength has improved the T20 World Cup finalists’ fielding agility and technique

MUMBAI: Four wins out of four paints a commanding picture, but, look closer at the performance of the Indian team at the ongoing I CC Women’s T20 World Cup, and what emerges are closely-fought games where a missed chance in the field could have been the difference between victory and defeat.

And these are chances that just a couple of years back the Indian team missed routinely; while Shafali Verma’s dazzling batting and Poonam Yadav’s mesmeric leg spin has drawn all the attention, it’s India’s drastically improved fielding that’s gone under the radar.

DIFFERENCE MAKER India’s wins en route to the final (on March 8, against Australia) have all come in relatively low scoring encounters—the rest of the batting line up have not kept up with Verma.

It’s a combination of incisive bowling and sharp fielding that suffocated the opponents as they tried to chase—australia faltered chasing 132 in the opening game, and New Zealand could not get to 133.

Even when India bowled first i n t heir l ast l eague match, against Sri Lanka, it was the fielding which proved to be the difference.

India pulled off some really good catches with Veda Krishnamurthy leading the way with two fine efforts in the deep to derail Sri Lanka’s middle-order and restrict them to 113.

In contrast, Sri Lanka dropped I ndia’s t op- scorer Verma twice.

“Their (India players) average height and limb length is much shorter than the players f rom t eams l i ke Australia, England and South Africa, but they are now negating their physical advantage with superior technique, the way we position ourselves and how we dive and slide,” says Biju George, who was the fielding coach of the women’s team from 2017 to November 2019, and largely credited for changing the fielding culture in the team.

ATTITUDE

“Most of all, it’s the attitude in the field. Our players are now ‘like we own the turf and you are not going to go past us’,” adds Biju, who is now the fielding coach for Sunrisers Hyderabad.

It’s not just that players from Australia, England, South Africa and New Zealand are taller or stronger, they also came through a far better system, with their training centres treating fitness protocols for men and women cricketers with equal emphasis.

To right these imbalances, coach WV Raman planned four camps since last June, with a focus on strength and speed work. The first camp was of 20 days, then two of 10 days each, and final one 10 days before the World Cup.

Earlier, says Biju, some of the