Shafali Verma had lasted a mere four balls after cricket statisticians across the world hurriedly dug out the records for the youngest debutant. To be fair, she had placed it well, to the left of mid-on, but Tumi Sekhukhune flung herself full length to come up with an excellent catch off the redoubtable Shabnim Ismail.
She was more fortunate in her second match, getting off the block with a couple of streaky boundaries. There was no concept of shot selection in the earlier stage of her innings: She went for everything, even the quick, accurate balls. She was beaten, edged one or two, mistimed, but somehow stayed put.
And then she connected one, a deft leg glance for four off Sekhukhune. There was no brute force — the quality one associates with Verma the most. That came next over, off Sune Luus, when she creamed one past cover and lofted the next ball for six over mid-wicket.
That will be 2-0 in the 5-match T20I series for #TeamIndia. They beat South Africa by 51 runs in the 4th T20I #INDvSA 😎💪💪 pic.twitter.com/5fyCuLTlZa
— BCCI Women (@BCCIWomen) October 1, 2019
The crowd suddenly came to life. Smriti Mandhana fell at the other end after playing one of the scratchiest innings of her life, but that did not seem to deter Verma. She hit Nonkululeko Mlaba for four past cover and hit Sekhukhune for six over mid-wicket (Laura Wolvaardt dropped the catch) before edging one on to the stumps.
Her 46 was chancy and breezy, but there was enough for the fans and critics to be convinced that the selectors had backed the right candidate ahead of the World Cup.
Verma had first grabbed attention last year with a 38-ball 49 against Railways Women, the strongest women’s side in Indian domestic cricket. The attack, consisting of Arundhati Reddy, Rumeli Dhar, Poonam Yadav, Ekta Bisht, and Rajeshwari Gayakwad, was easily the best in the country.
Then came her 56-ball 128 against Nagaland Women. Two aspects of her innings stood out. First, she got out in the 15th over; and second, 116 of her runs came in fours or sixes. She finished the tournament with a strike rate of 188; the next best was 156.
Then followed the Under-19 and Under-23 domestic tournaments — a level where there were few to match her class. For example, she struck at 172 in the 50-over U-19 tournament when nobody else reached 101.
She was selected to play for Velocity in the Women’s T20 Challenge earlier this year. At first glance, her innings against Trailblazers seems to reveal little. The target, after all, was a mere 113. Verma scored only 34, off 31 balls. For most of her innings, she was partnered by Danni Wyatt, fully capable of turning a match on its head.
There were other parameters too, beyond the scope of a basic scorecard. The number of balls she needs before switching to top gear, for example. Perhaps one needs to account for the bat speed, or the pace at which the ball travels to the boundary.
Even on their bad days Shakera Selman (T20I economy rate 5.61) and Sophie Ecclestone (6.70) are never easy to put away. Verma found two boundaries off Selman: the first was not timed to perfection, but the sheer power took it to the fence; the second was a pull off a rank long hop.
Then she slog-swept Gayakwad for four. Three balls later, she went for the slog sweep again and misjudged the length. Over the years, batters with far more experience have been fooled by Gayakwad’s flight, so there was little shame in that. But the story did not end in Verma getting beaten all ends up; instead, she found enough time to check her shot and run it down past fine leg for four.
Then came a spectacular six. Verma stepped out, but her front foot was not quite there. She still went with the shot and generated enough power to clear long-on.
In the final of the tournament, she smote Lea Tahuhu for consecutive fours, of which the first was an outrageous lofted drive over mid-on. The stature of the bowler did not matter.
Velocity's Danielle Wyatt was impressed, even more when she found out Verma’s age. “Probably in the next year or so, she’ll break into the Indian team,” she predicted. It took Verma only five months to make it. Mithali Raj, whose retirement from T20 cricket accelerated Verma’s debut, echoed Wyatt’s words.
What a moment this is for the hard-hitting batter Shafali Verma, who makes her India debut today. She is only 15! 😊💪🏾#INDWvsSAW pic.twitter.com/nD0C6ApQld
— BCCI Women (@BCCIWomen) September 24, 2019
The runs reveal a part of why Shafali Verma is on her way to becoming a T20 superstar. While India Women have put together an excellent ODI batting line-up, the same set of batters could not compete as easily with the bigger teams in the shorter formats.
There is no denying that India Women lack power hitters. Of course, they have Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, and Harmanpreet Kaur up the order, but most champion sides have five, often more of batters who can clear grounds regularly.
This has often resulted in one of the three having to restrain herself before the closing overs. And if all three got out, India’s five, six, seven, and eight have rarely been able to carry on with the same ferocity at the end.
This is exactly where Verma is likely to come in handy. Even at 15, she generates incredible power, an outcome of her strong hands and tremendous bat speed. She never seems to be perturbed by the stature of the bowler, and
while she may not be an answer to India's middle-order problem, her brand of batting may bolster the top-order.
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