Awards in Women's Cricket

This article first appeared in '' Seamstress ",  my column for Wisden India

With Mithali Raj recently becoming the only the fourth female cricketer to be awarded the distinguished Padma Shri award, I decided to compile a list of all female cricketers who have won major government awards. The exercise took me firmly out of my comfortable world of flowing prose and into the unyielding and inflexible realm of statistics, but it  was an enriching one all the same. This post is dedicated to all those incredibly talented and hard working women who deserve every accolade they can get, and to the many more whose way these awards may not have come.

In chronological order:

Shanta Rangaswamy

Arjuna Award- 1976

Shanta was the archetypal pioneer, at a time when women's cricket in India was in its infancy.  She captained the country in 12 of the 16 tests she played, and 16 of the 19 ODIs. In an era where Tests were the prevalent and sometimes only format, she played an attacking and entertaining brand of cricket. The  Bangalore all rounder could be destructive with the bat, as well as with her big inswingers. In a playing career that spanned 14 years, she accumulated 750 runs and 21 wickets in her 16 matches.  She is now a senior officer in a nationalised bank and currently a BCCI selector as well.

Diana Edulji

Arjuna Award- 1983

Padma Shri - 2002

The first female cricketer to be awarded the Padma Shri as well as the Arjuna, left arm spinner Diana Edulji was another member of the pioneering women's test team. Hailing from Mumbai, she is India's highest wicket taker in tests, and is third on the all-time list, with 63 wickets in 20 matches. Known for her unerring accuracy, she was the cornerstone of India's spin attack in those formative years. She also led the country in four tests and 18 ODIs. Now as Western Railway's Sr. Sports Officer, she has helped increase the employment opportunities for talented women cricketers in the country, and helped shape the sports policy of Western and Indian Railways.

Shubhangi Kulkarni

Arjuna Award- 1985

Leg spinning all rounder Shubhangi Kulkarni scalped 23 wickets in the seminal home test series against the West Indies that the Indian women played in 1976. Thereafter, she regularly contributed with ball and bat, and sits just behind Diana Edulji as India's second highest wicket taker, with 60 wickets in 19 tests. Her greatest legacy though, may be that of an administrator. She was Secretary of the Women's Cricket Association of India in 2005, when India registered their best ever performance in a World Cup, finishing runners up in South Africa. Previously, she had helped ink a sponsorship deal with Sahara, who were sponsoring the BCCI at the time.  She also played an instrumental role in the talks preceding BCCI's takeover of women's cricket in 2006. She currently runs a popular sports shop in her hometown of Pune.

Sandhya Agarwal

Arjuna Award - 1986

With an astonishing test batting average of 50.45 in 13 tests, Sandhya Agarwal was Indian women's cricket's run machine. Opening the batting, her presence at the wicket gave the Indian batting much needed stability. With four test hundreds, two of those on foreign soil, she is just behind England's Janette Brittin (five), who holds the record for highest number of centuries in women's tests. The Indore born cricketer was also a crucial member of a strong Indian Railways team for most of her career. She is now involved with the women's wing of the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association.

Mithali Raj

Arjuna Award - 2003

Padma Shri - 2015

Mithali has been the face of women's cricket in the country for more than a decade. She has been the ever present silver lining  in an era of inconsistency for Indian women's cricket. Some of her famous exploits with the bat - her test double hundred at the age of 19 for instance- have single handedly raised the profile of the women's game in the country. Her heroic double ton won her the Arjuna in 2003 making her the first woman in 16 years to win the award, and her overall contribution has also earned her the Padma Shri, which she said took her by surprise, considering Virat Kohli was also in the fray.  In an era where one dayers and later T20 matches were the popular formats, her numbers are staggering. With 4888 runs, she is second on the all-time ODI leading run scorers list. She has led the team in roughly half of her 153 ODIs. With 1267 runs in 47 matches, she is India's highest T20 run scorer, male or female, ahead of Virat Kohli (972). This coming from a player who said in an interview recently, that it took her many years to actually start enjoying the sport!

Anju Jain

Arjuna Award - 2005

Wicketkeeper-opening bat Anju Jain was honoured with the Arjuna in the year that she helped the Indian team make the finals of the 2005 World Cup in South Africa. She was the mainstay with the gloves and at the top of the order for almost a decade. Her diminutive stature belied the power she could pack in her strokes, and lent her agility behind the stumps. The Delhi player was also a key member of the successful Air India team on the domestic circuit. She currently coaches the Assam Cricket Association women's team.

Anjum Chopra

Arjuna Award - 2006

Padma Shri - 2014

Anjum Chopra, with 2856 ODI runs, is India's second highest run getter, and also 10th on the all-time run scorer list. The stylish Delhi left hander is one of the most recognisable faces in women’s cricket, as she is a regular feature on television commentary for both women's and men's international games. Another Air India stalwart, her fluent batting style and safe hands in the slips were a prominent feature of her playing career. She led the Indian team to their first ever overseas test victory in South Africa in 2002. She also played an instrumental role in the historic away series win against England in 2006. She is now a professional orator, sportscaster and writer.

Jhulan Goswami

Arjuna Award - 2010

Padma Shri - 2012

Jhulan seen addressing the team in England, 2011.

Along with Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami's achievements have made her the poster girl of Indian women's cricket. Her height, aggression and pace have helped her captivate the imaginations of onlookers unlike any other cricketer.  With 167 wickets, she is no. 2 on the all-time ODI wicket takers list.  Since breaking into the Indian team as a precocious teenager, she has spearheaded the Indian attack for almost 15 years now. She bowled India to a famous test series win in Taunton, England in 2006, with one of the most clinical displays of fast bowling seen in the women's game. Her match haul of 10 wickets helped her claim the ICC cricketer of the Year award in 2007, the only Indian ever to do so. The tearaway from the small town of Chakda (in the outskirts of Kolkata) went on to lead the country in 42 internationals, including a third place finish in the 2009 Women's World Cup.

Audience episode 2: At the IPLagain!

This article first appeared in my column "Seamstress" for Wisden India

After a few years at the fringes, I was thrilled to find myself back in the NCA camp this year, which meant a month’s sojourn in Bangalore, one of my favourite places. On our first day, the NCA was off limits to us because of the security measures the IPL demanded. So we went to the hospital for our medical check-ups, which meant lots of waiting, giggling and gossip outside different departments. As we got back to the hotel tired and spent, wanting nothing more than a hot shower and full belly, I noticed a buzz spreading in the corridors outside.

Jhulan di was quickly going room to room, asking who wants to watch the IPL game happening tonight. It was Bangalore vs Chennai (Match # 20), a high pressure game, so almost the entire group was going.

As we joined the crowd that was slowly milling into the stadium, I could not help but wonder at the pull the IPL was creating (not to mention the traffic jams). Not even the Ranji trophy final, which was also held in Bangalore, compelled so many locals to turn up and watch cricket live!

That’s the thing about watching cricket live. It hooks you, comprehensively, especially if you are the type of fish that responds to the willow bait and leather tack. Watching a live cricket match inspired my first ever blog post, and set me on this path of writing. In short, it changed my life. 

For one thing, TV slows everything down! McCullum's sprints across the turf to reel in balls that are destined for the boundary come alive in jaw dropping fashion. As does Raina's exaggerated follow through when he bats. It’s something else. 

It's been 10 years since the T20 format pounced on us, and it has rivalled Indian politics for the number of scams and controversies it has endured. On the other hand, in terms of providing entertainment and spectacle, it has caught up with the Indian Film Industry, and in deed in the IPL's case, married it. Much debate has ensued, particularly in recent years, with the match fixing scandals and the commercialisation of the ICC further pushing home the reality that money is making the cricket world go around, and the cricket has been left behind. But has it?

I admit I had next to no interest in watching the IPL this year. I had had my fill of quality cricket on television with the World Cup. But that was not the only reason. I was disenchanted with the IPL. The outbalanced competition between bat and ball and the multitude of scams tainting it aside, I felt little loyalty to any of the teams playing, barring a sliver of affinity towards the King's XI (more because of the coaching staff than the players). So when I joined the throng to watch this IPL game, only my second ever live IPL game, I was going purely to watch cricket. I was trying to be a purist in my head, not a tourist, and to watch the cricket, not the cricketers. 

And the cricket was not absent. Yes there were cheerleaders (who were a distraction more than anything), and there was music and a brilliant live percussionist (which enhanced  the atmosphere really), but the cricket demanded to be seen, as pain demands to be felt (a team mate mentioned ''The Fault in Our stars yesterday""!). Starc sizzled, Chahal baffled, Raina was bold and the Chinnaswamy proved that it is woefully small as mishits went for six and middles went into the 1st tiers. Even though I missed the best of the match (Nehra's four-fer and Virat's fighting fifty) because we had training the next day, live cricket did not disappoint. It was the spectacle I came to see, and it would have been just as entertaining even if I did not recognise a single player or there was no music to bob my head along to. 

Is it the best way to promote the game? As Kathleen Galligan wrote in her highly insightful and entertaining column, "T20 is a good introduction to a sport that is otherwise long and complicated. If you would train for a marathon by first running short distances, surely you can watch T20 before taking on a Test match''. If you come to an IPL match and like I mentioned before, are the types who like the smell of the willow bait and leather tack, the cricket will hook you. The cricket mind you, not the format, not the music, not the melting pot that is the IPL. 

The IPL has the ability to pull in even those who come for the spectacle, for the music, for the atmosphere. It is designed for the masses of Indian viewers who come to watch the movies for the actors, not the story, for the item songs, not the dialogues. 

But if among this crowd, are a handful of observers, who will fall in love with the sound the ball makes when it hits the middle of the bat, or the whirr it makes when it leaves the bowlers hand, despite all the noise in the stadium, then cricket has won. It is an optimistic, naive and unrealistic notion, but I’m sure, among the crowd, is at least one little boy or girl, who will come back for another match, in another tournament, and another format, and maybe take up the game. And that’s a win for the game.

Super Story

This article first appeared in my column "Seamstress" for Wisden India.

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One over.

Twelve runs to get.

 Five wickets down.

Gouher Sultana bowling for the Railways, the defending champions. Shweta Mane and Devika Vaidya batting for Maharashtra, the hosts.

We believed. The odds were against us, but we believed. 

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Five days earlier:

It was the first game of the Elite Group ‘A’ T20 nationals, a tournament that rumours had suggested may not happen at all. My team, Maharashtra, needed 26 off the last two overs to win our first match vs Odisha, in front of our home crowd. We got 15. We lost.

I was disgusted with myself. After bowling a tight first three overs, I had given away two boundaries in the last over. We had lost, and we now had an uphill task ahead of us. We still needed to beat a strong Delhi, minnows Gujarat, and defending champions Railways, to give ourselves the best chance of finishing in the top two. And even that may not guarantee us the result we wanted: qualification for the Super League phase. 

I set the tone in the match vs Delhi. After bowling two maidens, I dismissed both openers in my third over. Devika Vaidya, who was the top run getter in the U19 season, was now showing just how valuable she is with the ball. Her leg spin claimed four wickets, and we contained a strong Delhi batting line up for 82.

After an initial scare, where Amita Sharma hit our opener Priyanka on the head with a bouncer (in a spot very close to where Phil Hughes was hit), we chased the total with a few overs to spare and 9 wickets in hand. But more significant, was the fact that our 18 year old captain got some valuable runs. Smriti Mandhana had had a horrible one day season , with a top score of 28. To see her get some quick confident runs, and anchor the chase, brought joy to her well wishers and lifted a load off her shoulders. 

The next day, Delhi did us the favour of beating Odisha, which opened up the group. Net Run Rate was definitely going to be a factor, so we kept that in mind as we made short work of Gujarat, chasing their total of 63 in the ninth over, with Smriti making 36* off 27 balls, without hitting a single ball too hard. As we hung around to watch Delhi play Railways in the next game, we almost saw our chances diminish. 

Delhi put in a spirited batting performance, with Latika Kumari (who had scored 79* in the previous game vs Odisha) making a run a ball 51. But the real fireworks came from old war horse Amita Sharma(27* off 17), who reverse swept Gouher Sultana for four, not once, not twice, but thrice in one over! The third of those shots was especially spectacular, a switch hit that sailed over the head of a helpless short third man! Delhi ended up with 129.

A Railways win would improve our chances, so we cheered every shot their batsmen played, but watched as the match seemed to slip away from them. When Mithali Raj was bowled with  91 still  needed, we thought Delhi could pull this rabbit out of the hat. But Harmanpreet Kaur and Shravanti Naidu kept Railways in the chase, barely. When Shravanti fell in the penultimate over, it left Railways needing 11 off the last over, with Harmanpreet stuck at the non strikers end.

Harrman had bailed Railways out of trouble in their previous game. Gujarat had Railways reeling, at seven for the loss of four wickets in four overs, when she walked in and stamped her class on the match, smashing 81* off 47 balls, with four sixes. So if anyone had the panoply of shots to get Railways home against Delhi, it was Harman.

As the shadows lengthened, and the odd bird of prey made a swoop at the ground, Reema Malhotra began the final over. Shubhlakshmi swung and missed at one ball, and was out the next. We could see how desperate Harry was to get on strike. Poonam Yadav obliged, but that left her 10 to get off three balls. 

We watched open mouthed and dumbstruck as Harry smashed Reema's quicker delivery over long on for a huge six! She ran two off the next ball, but got only one as Yadav was run out at the other end. Three needed off the last ball, two to tie. But Harman had no intention of tying this match. She smashed the last ball straight where long off mistimed the slide and the ball rolled over the fence for four! Railways rejoiced, Maharashtra breathed a bit more easily, and I reflected on the coming of age of Harmanpreet Kaur. 

As we arrived at the ground the next day, we knew we had to beat Railways. Only that would guarantee us qualification. A loss may have allowed Delhi to slip ahead on run rate. After their openers fell Mithali and Harman kept taking singles and caressing (Mithali) or smashing (Harman) a boundary ever so often.

 When Mithali holed out to long off in the 17^th over, we knew we could keep build some pressure towards the end. Devika delivered yet again, dismissing Harman an over later. We had kept them down to 113. And we backed ourselves to go for the win, and not take the easy run rate option. 

Smriti continued where she had left off against Gujarat, smashing Shubhlakshmi and Kavita Patil for three fours in the first two overs. Railways pulled things back through Ekta Bisht, who dismissed Tejal, Smriti's opening partner. Thereafter, Smriti and Anuja Patil milked the strike, and kept us close to the asking rate. 

By then, a sizeable crowd had gathered to watch, comprising mostly of students waiting for their evening coaching session to start, plus former players and families of the host team. Shadows were creeping along the ground as surely as the required run rate was creeping up. In the dressing room, the countdown had begun, and outside the boundary, the crowd were vociferously getting behind us.

 Shubhlakshmi dismissed Anuja in the 12th over, and Smriti fell in the 14th with 49 still needed off 41 balls. I joined Shweta Mane at the crease, and we ran like hares for every run, I even ran one run short, which I shrugged off, as we tried to reduce the widening gap between runs required and balls left. 

When I was dismissed, I was asked to wait as the umpires checked for a no ball. I hoped against hope that luck would somehow grant me another shot, that I could still affect the outcome of this match in some way. Little did I know that fate would grant me my wish in dramatic circumstances.

One over. Twelve runs to get. Five wickets down.

 Gouher Sultana bowling for the Railways, the defending champions. Shweta Mane and Devika Vaidya batting for Maharashtra, the hosts.

A world class bowler against a well set batsman. We believed. The odds were against us, but we believed. 

Shweta helped the first ball to fine leg for four. Eight off five needed. a two, a run out and two singles meant that we needed three off the last ball.

Shweta slogged to deep mid wicket. The batsmen ran two, and the match was tied! It would go into the Super Over!

A mixture of adrenaline, wonder, and pure joy and excitement coursed through me. And amidst all this, a sillage of regret as I thought back to my one short run! 

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The Super Over. The crucible in which small quantities of the chemicals are mixed together and a fire is set beneath them, provoking them into a reaction. The ultimate condensation of the game's evolution in pursuit of a result. It doesn’t get smaller than this. Or bigger. 

I have only been involved in two matches featuring Super Overs previous to this. In the first, for India vs England Academy in 2011, I remember Harmanpreet smashing an off spinner for a six over mid-wicket to win the game. We knew she would be batting. So we went decided to go with pace for the super over. I was to bowl it, and the match had once again unexpectedly pulled me into its fabric, like a hurricane sucks in an unsuspecting feather. 

But first we had to bat. And Smriti and Anuja did not disappoint. Smriti creamed Shubhlakshmi for two boundaries, and Anuja one. Helped by two wides and one no ball, we notched up 20 runs!  

But we could not relax. None of us had forgotten Harman's heroics against Delhi just a day ago. She was the key, her six hitting ability elevating the danger she posed our attempted upset. So when she was caught at cover second ball, off a top edge, we knew we had a foot in the door of the Super Leagues. Despite Mithali sending the last ball to the point boundary, I conceded 10 of the entire over, and we erupted in an outburst of celebration. Our team mates and the audience streamed over the boundary line towards us! We had just handed Railways only their second ever T20 loss since the tournaments inception, and had sealed a place in the Super League. 

We had believed. 

Our celebration after the match. 

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In the Elite Group ‘B’, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh qualified for the Super Leagues and will join Maharashtra and Railways. In the Plate Division, Karnataka, Goa, Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra and Assam qualified for the Knock out Phase. 

Railways, Andhra, emerge One Day Champions 2014-15

The 2014-15 Elite Division saw a familiar scene with Indian Railways brushing aside all opposition to once again emerge Champions of the One Day competition. Their batsmen established a fruitful relationship with concrete: the top order with the concrete like batting pitches of Rajkot, and their middle order with the concrete floors of the dressing rooms, as they were hardly required to  bat. Chief reasons, were opener Punam Raut, who  notched up scores of 100*. 71* and 98, and Mithali Raj , batting at three, who scored   47, 67 and 49 . Their form ensured that Railways shrugged off their rare loss in the group stage, and continued on their winning ways. 

Punam Raut's form ensured that Railways clinched yet another title.

The real fight, emerged for second and third places. Maharashtra, Delhi and Odisha were matched in a battle of nerves;all three of their encounters were low scoring affairs, which went down to the last over. In the end, Odisha edged past the other two, chasing on both occasions, and scraping home by three wickets against Maharashtra, and one wicket against Delhi. Delhi had to be satisfied with third, while Maharashtra finished fourth. 

The Plate division delivered the unexpected surprise of the season, with unfancied Andhra pipping an in form Goa team to the title in the Final. The only domestic team to have a foreign coach, former New Zealander Maria Fahey, Andhra finished the tournament as the only unbeaten side in both divisions. 

In their respective semi finals, Goa executed their strategy of fielding first to perfection. They allowed their pace bowling quartet, led by Shikha Pandey, to extract early movement, and skittled out Karnataka's much vaunted batting order for 93. Skipper Yetrekar and Pandey then proceeded to anchor the chase and see them home. Andhra meanwhile, made heavy weather of a small total of 120 vs Madhya Pradesh, but managed to cross the line with two wickets to spare, Sneha Dipti's unbeaten 45 seeing her team home. 

In the final, Goa's strategy of fielding first backfired as Andhra opener Monika Sai and No.3 S. Meghana stroked half centuries and set Andhra on route for a strong 189, despite Pandey's three wickets. The total proved too much as Goa failed to chase it down, ending up on 137/8 in their allotted 50 overs, to hand Andhra their first ever national level title. Both teams earned places in the Elite Division for the next season. 

Endgame : Who will be crowned Champions?

This article first appeared in my column "Seamstress" for Wisden India.

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As I write this, the Boxing Day test between India and Australia is into it's fourth day, with the outcome just starting to take shape. My favourtie commentator, Harsha Bhogle, is using one of his favourite analogies, tallking about how the match has moved into its business end, much like a chess match moves into its end game. The pawns have been sacrificed, the strategies revealed, and it often coimes down to who holds their nerve and sticks to their plans better. The same can be said of the women's domestic season, where the next few matches will decide who will be crowned Champions of 2014-15.

In the Elite Division, the four teams who have progressed will play out one of the most evenly contested Super League phases in recent times. Defending Champions Railways, and Delhi from pool A will meet Odisha and Maharashtra from pool B in a round robin format in Rajkot on the new years day. All four teams come in with a 3-1 win loss record from their pools respective pools. Holders Railways will be concerned with the good form of Delhi's batting unit, and Odisha's bowling unit. Odisha, after slumping to a loss against Maharashtra, came back in superb fashion by skittling out Mumbai for 28 and then Tripura for 30 in decent batting conditions. Meanwhile, Delhi will be banking on in form openers Latika Kumari and Priya Punia, who have put on stands of 29, 86, 87* and 67 in the league phase. With the experience of Reema Malhotra and Amita Sharma to come down the order, a great start will be just the launching pad they would want to challenge for the title. Maharashtra's Anuja Patil will look to continue her fine form with bat and ball, and her team will need it to threaten the other three teams. Railways, after suffering a shock defeat to Jhulan Goswami's Bengal, will have shed their skins of complacency and will look to reassert their supremacy. Railways and Delhi will start with an added advantage, having played their pool A Matches at rajkot itslef.

In the Plate Division, as per my prediction in my preview post, Karnataka, Goa, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh made the cut, along with Andhra and Himachal Pradesh. The knock outs will take place in Hyderabad, also from the new years day, with Goa and Andhra having earned byes in their quarter finals. With places in the Elite division next year up for grabs, the stakes are high. Andhra, coached by  former White Fern Maria Fahey, are the only team with an all win record. However, Karnataka, with a star stutted batting line up, and left arm tweaker Rajeshwari to boot, will start favourites on paper. But they must first get past Tamil Nadu in their quarter final. Tamil Nadu will depend heavily on Thirushkamini, who registered a ton against Gujarat in the group stage.


A close endgame awaits as the best teams in India go head to head, and followers of the game will be hoping for a reversal  in the trend of low scoring matches the group stages witnessed. As the pawns are discarded, it remains to be seen which of the more puissant chess pieces will make it all the way across the board and be ordained queen.

Mystery spin in the Womens Game

This article first appeared in my column "Seamstress" for Wisden India.

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Last year, Maya Sonawane was a member of the  Maharashtra team that were joint winners of the women's domestic U-19 competition. She was only 14. For her, it would have been easy to say that she was happy just being a part of the squad of fifteen. She carried the drinks,clapped hard, and cheered her team mates from the sidelines in a tense final, and enjoyed the moment when she could call herself a part of a champion team. It could have been enough. After all, she was just 14.

 It wasn't.

Today, at  just 15 years of age, with 23 wickets from nine matches, she is the 2014-15 season's highest wicket taker in the U-19 competition.

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A few years ago, a local corporator in Sinnar - A town some 30 km from Nashik, the wine capital of India-  built a cricket pitch in his backyard. He wanted his young school-going  daughter to learn to play cricket. No, this school-going girl was not Maya. Maya was the girl who would watch them play on her way home from school, and  hang around and pick up any stray balls that rolled in her direction. Maya didn't really find cricket. Cricket found Maya.


 Her disarming smile and outspoken innocence meant that soon enough, she befriended the girl and her father, and started bowling to the child, occasionally having a go with her bat after she was done.  Maya's older brother soon started accompanying her, in part because he recognised that his little sister had a talent at this, but mostly just to keep an eye on his little sister. A few girls from her locality also started coming along, in part to help the corporator's daughter play, but mostly because they occasionally got a ride in the corporators car afterwards.


Soon, a few boys who represented Nashik District, learned that a pitch existed in their backyard, and started training there instead of making their daily commute to Nashik. They passed on advice on the basics of the game to the girls, and that became the first rudimentary coaching that Maya received.

At some distance from  this makeshift coaching center of excellence, stood one of Sinnar's  major attractions, the Gargoti Museum. It houses a collection of  Zeolites (mineral stones native to the area.) ''They are the stones we use to start a fire'' says Maya, when I asked her what Gargoti meant.

And already, a few stones in Sinnar had started rubbing against each other, kindling sparks of cricket-fire in their young minds.

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It is impossible to miss Maya. Standing just a shade over five feet tall, you couldn't pick her out of a line up.  But give her a ball in hand, and any lay man watching her bowl will tell you that she is different. Her unique bowling action, with her head pointing downwards when she releases her wrist spinners, is what sets her apart. Her arm speed, revolutions, and bounce off the pitch will make a few quick bowlers envious.  Watching her, one immediately thinks of Paul Adams, whom Mike Gatting immortalised in the imaginations of audiences by likening his bowling action to "A frog in a blender". Except that Maya bowls right handed, not left handed like Adams did. Ask Maya about him, and she coolly replies that she has never seen him bowl! "I've heard of him, but only recently. People told me that his action is like mine!''

So popular was Maya's bowling in her hometown, that girls from Sinnar found their parents telling them  to bowl like her! And so, more than one young girl from Sinnar was trying to send down deliveries- a la Paul Adams- at the Maharashtra U19 trial nets. It didn't matter that the girls bowled off spin and medium pace, they made sure they did it like Maya!

Maya in the middle of her ''frog-in-the-blender'' action in her hometown of Sinnar

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 After attending the Maharashtra state U-19 trials as a 14 year old, Maya made her first appearance for the state in the 2013-14 season, though she only played in one match. Her fitness levels, bred naturally by a childhood spent in the great outdoors of Sinnar, impressed her peers and her coaches. But her inaccuracy meant she could not force a place in the starting XI that year. Her heterodox action - the fact that she used her little finger to spin the ball, instead of her ring finger which wrist spinners generally use- meant that standard coaching manuals were of minimal help. So it came down to sheer practice and repetition.

Back home in Sinnar, Maya applied herself to trying to hit the same spot over and over while bowling. The same little finger that she used to give the ball a rip now gave testimony to the amount of hard work she had put in. A large  nodule of raw skin protrudes from the knuckle of her pinky, looking gruesomely like a parasitic growth that does not belong there.

''The seam cuts open the skin every time I bowl'', she says of the wound in the belly of the nodule, an occupational affliction that many spinners share. "Now I have learnt to take care of it with tape."

When the 2014-15 season finally dawned, the pain she had endured in her many sessions of spot bowling bore fruit. In the first match of the season, against Baroda U-19, she took 6-17 in eight overs. Her flight , dip and variations in turn mean that opposition batsmen were afraid to use their feet against her, allowing her to dominate them. Against Gujarat, she returned figures of 4-6 in three overs, including a hat trick.

She continued to shine in the All India leg of the U-19 tournament, taking nine wickets in five matches, including three in the semi final, which Maharashtra lost. The diminutive tweaker though, could hold her head up high, finishing on top of the wicket takers list, her closest competitor a full six wickets behind.

A grinning Maya proudly modelling her first  Maharashtra Sr. team kit

Now as the youngest member of the Maharashtra Sr. squad, Maya faces the prospect of having to raise her game a notch to match the faster,fitter standard of play in senior cricket. Not happy with just being the travelling baby in the team, she wants a place in the starting XI.  But she knows she will have to earn it. Her young age and diminutive frame hide the courage and hunger that she has inside her, and she isn't afraid of taking on the older girls in duels in the nets, even if it means getting hit for six once in a while.


Along with state captain Smriti Mandhana and Devika Vaidya - both still in their teens - Maya will most likely form a core of young talent that Maharashtra is nurturing. She should be a regular in the side in the  years to come. But she can think about that later. Right now she spends her energy trying to land the ball in the right areas consistently, and worries mostly about not being able to watch Chota Bheem while on tour.

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Sr. Domestic season 2014-15 Preview

The 2014-15 one day season will begin on the 6th of December at various venues across the country. For a look at the teams and fixtures,  have a look at my previous post (Plate division group A fixtures have changed since then, with the reintroduction of Rajasthan). The format is unchanged from last year. 

Elite Division Champions Railways have strengthened their squad with the addition of  current internationals Harmanpreet Kaur, Poonam Yadav, besides Priyanka Roy, and Shravanti Naidu. The Elite A pool could well be called the Group of Death. Giving Railways company, are Jhulan Goswami led Bengal,  who won the plate division last year, and whose U19 team recently lifted the national championship.  Then there is Hyderabad,  who are led by a new young captain, M. Shalini.  They ran Railways close in both their T20 encounters last year, and will look to go one better this time. And lastly Uttar Pradesh , last year's runner's up, and Delhi, who will be bolstered by the return of veteran Reema Malhotra. 

Elite group B also promises some close encounters,  with four of the five teams more or less equal in strength, boasting at least one player who has represented India. Underdogs Tripura will be keen to spring a surprise or two as well. 18 year old Smriti Mandhana will lead Maharashtra for the first time in the one day format, and will look to establish her captaincy credentials. Her young team also includes the U19 season's highest run scorer Devika Vaidya, and highest wicket taker, 15 year old Maya Sonawane.

In the Plate division, there are never any clear favourites, and all teams will hotly contest for the top spot in their pools, as this could mean a chance for promotion into the Elite Division next season. Shikha Pandey and Thirushkamini, fresh from strong performances in the recent home series against the Proteas, will look to carry that form into the domestic season. Their teams, Goa and Tamil Nadu respectively, along with Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh are the teams I would watch out for. Karnataka in particular, with Veda Krishnamurthy returning to their ranks, will be hard pressed not to reach the last two.