Indian pacer Titas Sadhu, who took three wickets for six runs, was the pick of the bowlers as the women’s team beat Sri Lanka by 19 runs to win country’s maiden Asian Games gold in cricket in Hanzghou, China on Monday.
India had set Sri Lanka a target of 117 in the final at the Pingfeng Cricket Field courtesy significant contributions from Smriti Mandhana (46) and Jemimah Rodrigues (42).
Captain Harmanpreet Kaur, back into the team after serving her two-match suspension for breaching ICC Code of Conduct during a limited-overs series in Bangladesh earlier this year, introduced Sadhu after off-spinner Deepti Sharma and pacer Pooja Vastrakar conceded 13 runs in the first two overs of the Sri Lankan chase.
Sadhu, the 18-year-old from West Bengal, began with a double-wicket maiden. She removed Anushka Sanjeewani with her first ball as the Sri Lankan opener provided a simple catch to Harmanpreet at mid off. New batter Vishmi Gunaratne did not last long as the fourth ball of the over, back of a length delivery, beat her defence to hit the off stump.
In her next over, Sadhu got the big wicket of Chamari Athapaththu as the Sri Lankan skipper chipped one back of a length delivery outside the off stump straight to Deepti Sharma at extra cover. The teenager could have picked another wicket if it wasn’t for Amanjot Kaur who dropped a sharp chance at backward point provided by Nilakshi de Silva. She ended her first spell with the figures 3-1-2-3.
Cricket wasn’t Sadhu’s first choice. She dreamed of becoming a swimmer and would accompany her father Ranadeep to the Chinsurah Rajendra Smriti Sangha academy on the outskirts of Kolkata. However, over the years, things changed, and she eventually fell in love with cricket. Starting cricket at 13, she had to wait for her chance to break into the Bengal team. While she could not clear the trials on the first attempt, school board examinations (standard ten) forced her to miss out on the 2018-19 season.
She made it to the senior Bengal squad in the 2020-21 season post Covid-19 pandemic. She was just 16 but the then Bengal women’s coach Shib Shankar Paul saw her at one of the training sessions and picked her for three practice games. Up against Uttarakhand, Sadhu had an abysmal outing. While Rumeli Dhar started the proceedings for Bengal with the new ball, she bowled the second over. The first ball she bowled went for a wide and boundary. She looked off-colour on the field and could not justify her selection in the first two matches and was eventually dropped.
But she performed well in the inter-district matches and the Cricket Association of Bengal-affiliated tournaments. And those performances were enough for her to earn back her place in the senior team.
Sadhu first announced her arrival on the international stage at the inaugural ICC U-19 Women’s T20 World Cup where she picked two wickets for six runs as eventual champion India bundled out England for 68 in the final in Potchefstroom, South Africa.
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