Remember that Test no.2387 and then had to wait for more than 4 months for the historic test no. 2388 .. .. .. Cricket perhaps is back on its feet ! This post is on an exceptional women – a Cardiovascular Scientist !!
AT start of this year
2020, India toured New Zealand and
played two Tests, three One Day Internationals (ODIs) and five Twenty20
International (T20I) matches. The Test series formed part of the inaugural
2019–21 ICC World Test Championship.
India won the first three
T20I matches to give them an unassailable lead in the series. The third T20I was decided by a Super Over,
after both teams made 179 runs from their twenty overs. This gave India their
first T20I series win in New Zealand. Kane Williamson was ruled out of the fourth
T20I with a shoulder injury, with Tim Southee named as New Zealand's captain in
Williamson's absence. The fourth T20I
was also tied, with India once again winning the match in the Super Over. India
won the final T20I match to take the series 5–0, becoming the first side to
whitewash another team in a five-match bilateral T20 series.
However, New Zealand won all the 3 ODI matches making their first clean sweep against India
in an ODI series with three or more matches. It was the first time that India
were whitewashed in an ODI series since losing 5–0 to the West Indies in March
1989. During the tour, New Zealand's
Ross Taylor became the first cricketer to play in 100 matches in all three
formats of international cricket. New Zealand won the first Test by ten wickets
to record their 100th victory in Test match cricket. New Zealand won the second
Test also by seven wickets,[ taking the
series 2–0, and extending their record of being undefeated at home to thirteen
Test matches.
That was on Mar 2,2020 and
then followed the lull, Cricket fans had to wait for history to happen on 12th July 2020 ~ yes a
test match happening after 4 months – amidst Covid and the touring West Indies
emerging winners. A significant win to
Jason Holder and West Indies ! when the
Series was contemplated, even die hard fans were not favour of matches being
played at a time when the globe was surrounded with pain and anxiety. However, ECB planned the matches within a
biosecure bubble, with on-site hotels being their quarantine base. It clearly was
an attempt to cash on media marketing, not on the game or the spectators but
those who would watch the forecasts even when drowning under fear of Covid
19.
There have been many
matches since, after West Indies, Pakistan toured England and now Australia is
playing. Indian Premier League is set to
begin in another 10 days’ time with matches being played at UAE. When Germany
women took the field for the first T20I against Austria in Seebarn on August
12, it marked the return of women's internationals since the T20 World Cup
final in March, but the series will be remembered more for all the records
Germany broke along the way to a 5-0 win - two hat-tricks, the team's first
T20I century, Germany's first T20I five-for, and their openers setting the
highest unbeaten partnership for the first wicket across all T20Is. The sudden
limelight was something the players weren't used to. The livestreams of these
matches on YouTube gained over 85,000 views each, and their phones buzzed with
notifications from across social media handles.
An Indian women
more distinguished otherwise hit the headlines by taking 4 wickets in 4 balls
in T20I .. .. She is Anuradha Doddaballapur, the
Indian-born captain of the German national team, who took four wickets in four
balls against Austria in Seebarn last month. The previous day, her team-mate
Anne Bierwisch took a hat-trick against the same opponents, also in Seebarn.
Two bowlers have taken
four wickets in four balls in men's T20I.
First was Rashid Khan, for
Afghanistan against Ireland in Dehradun in Feb 2019 and he was followed in Sept
by Lasith Malinga, for Sri Lanka against New Zealand in Pallekele. Malinga has
also achieved this feat in one-day internationals - against South Africa in
Providence (Guyana) during the 2007 World Cup.
There's a
running joke in our team," says Anuradha Doddaballapur, the Germany
women's captain. "The minimum qualification to make it to our women's national
side is a master's degree." Former
Karnataka player Doddaballapur is a cardiovascular scientist, and fits right in
in a team mostly comprising highly qualified academics.
"The balance between science and cricket has been a difficult one, but
I've never felt like giving up one for the other," says the 33-year-old.
"To have a world record to your name while you're able to do the work you
want to do is something I am grateful for." Her 5 for 1 in the fourth T20I
against hosts Austria made her the first woman to take four wickets in four
balls in T20Is.
Doddaballapur is a
medium-pacer, but the record came when she decided to bring herself on as a
spinner in the 15th over. She says she wanted to put the onus on the batter to
generate all the power herself. "The hat-trick ball was quite exciting
because we had had one the day before," Doddaballapur says. That was
Germany women's first ever hat-trick, taken by Anne Bierwisch. It was quite the
day for records; in the second T20I, earlier on the 13th, Emma Bargna had taken
Germany women's first five-for. "The fourth ball - nothing special,
really," Doddaballapur remembers. "It was all about going through the
over. In fact, my reaction after the four-for was so normal that I wished I
were aware it was a world record, so I could have reacted more
enthusiastically!"
A native of Basavanagudi
in Bengaluru, India, Doddaballapur was drawn to sport by her father's love of
Test cricket. She remembers being charmed by Sachin Tendulkar's batting, before
a "zinc-smeared" Allan Donald's bowling action made her a fan. At the
suggestion of a friend 12-year-old Doddaballapur got into the Karnataka women
players' organised training group in 1998-99. The group was overseen by former
India captain Shantha Rangaswamy and batter Kalpana
Venkatachar. Back then, women's cricket in India was still nearly eight
years from coming under the BCCI's purview. Her Karnataka career came to an end
with her decision to move to the UK in 2008 to get a masters
in Medical Genetics at Newcastle University after finishing a Bachelor of
Engineering degree in Biotechnology at Bengaluru's New Horizon College.
But it was far from the end for her cricket-wise. "I enrolled myself at a
cricket club in Newcastle. A few county coaches noticed me there and I ended up
playing a few seasons for the Northumberland women's county side, one for my
university and three for my local club, the South North Cricket Club."
An offer to pursue a PhD in Cardiovascular Biology at the Goethe University in
Frankfurt came by in 2011. Given Germany's prominence as a hub of
biomedical research, the decision to relocate was not too difficult. "But
I knew I could live away from cricket only that long," says Doddaballapur,
"so after a year of getting used to life in Frankfurt, I started looking
up cricket clubs in the city." She could only find one, the Frankfurt
Cricket Club (FCC), and it did not have a women's team. So she decided to play
on the FCC men's team for the 2013 and 2014 seasons. She also represented the
Cologne women's team in the country's primary leather-ball inter-region
tournament, Bundesliga, from 2013 to 2015, and during that time helped lay the
foundation for a women's club in Frankfurt.
Meanwhile, a
maiden call-up to a national squad training camp in Berlin came in the spring
of 2013. Her debut for Germany in the T20 European tournament followed in
August that year. In 2014-15, Doddaballapur and another Frankfurt-based player
set up an FCC women's club, which has since 2016 fielded a team in the
Bundesliga. A further step up in her cricketing career came in 2017, when was
handed the captaincy of the national team. Last year she also picked up an ECB
Level 2 certification, along with 14 other coaches in the country, four of them
women.
"The principles of
coaching here are slightly different," says Doddaballapur, breaking down a
process she describes as unconventional.
Doddaballapur is looking to continue contributing to both cricket and
science "until I tire out - which I hope never happens". And she
hopes her record five-for and Germany's series win helps put the women's
national team on the world map. "Ours was the first women's international
series after the Covid-19 hiatus," says Doddaballapur. "The ICC did a
bit of promotion, reaching out to us for photos for social media - which
doesn't happen often for Associate teams, so I'm grateful that Austria successfully
staged the series. Our matches were live-streamed, meaning that, aside from the
England v Pakistan series, people could watch ours too. The response on social
media has been great, and I hope our performance - both individually and as a
team - further helps kindle interest in Germany women."
Hats off to this great
Women Cricketing Doctor !
9.9.2020.
No comments:
Post a Comment