–Bharath Ramaraj
It is 10.45 PM at the Brabourne Stadium as Nat Sciver nonchalantly ramps a full toss from Alice Capsey over the ‘keeper’s head and into the boundary hoardings. Mumbai Indians have created history by winning the inaugural WPL and the star England all-rounder has aptly played a pivotal role. It is true that the delivery was there to be hit but Nat Sciver’s 55-ball unbeaten 60 in tricky conditions and under pressure in the summit clash against Delhi Capitals summed up her ability to stay in the present.
Staying in the present. Just press the rewind button a bit. MI are 23 for 2 and in a spot of bother in the final. Nat Sciver could have crumbled under pressure by looking for the big shot too soon. Instead, she and Harmanpreet Kaur calmly went about rotating the strike, twinned with the occasional sweep, pull and lofted strokes. Nat Sciver could have again lost the plot when Harmanpreet was run out in the 17th. Her response was a cheeky little reverse sweep. While zooming in on that stroke, it felt as if there was a map of the field fitted somewhere in her brain.
Nat Sciver followed that up by cracking a perfectly placed sweep in the penultimate over off Jess Jonassen. Incidentally, the Jonassen-Nat Sciver contest has a story within the story. Over a period of time, while playing for Australia, Jonassen has been Meg Lanning’s go-to bowler in the slog overs. The 50-over World Cup league game between England and Australia serves as an example.
England needed 16 off just one over. Although the equation seemed like a tall order, Sciver would have had hopes of piloting her country to a famous win. After all, she was batting on a superbly-paced 83 off 108. Just that Jonassen showcased her cut and thrust skills by snuffing all of England’s hopes by pouching a one-hand stunner to dislodge the dangerous all-rounder. Roughly over a year later though, it was Nat Sciver who came up trumps against the Lanning-Jonassen duo.
“Glad I was able to stick it out when the pressure was on. I was trying to get quite tough and Harman and Melie took the pressure off me. I knew if I stayed till the end we’d get through,” Nat Sciver said to the official broadcaster sports18 in the post-match presentation of the WPL final.
It wasn’t just in the final where Nat Sciver wore her special suit, gifted with a generous portion of talent. Even in the Eliminator, her 38-ball 72 proved to be the telling difference between MI and UP Warriorz. To illustrate the point, just glance through the 12th over bowled by Parshavi Chopra. The promising spinner had settled into a nice rhythm in her first over. But she was just about to understand the difference between playing at the junior level and top-flight.
In fact, Parshavi didn’t bowl that badly. The first ball was a tad short as Nat Sciver picked the length quickly and pulled her through midwicket. By then, the experienced pro was perhaps reading the young bowler’s mind as she chipped down the track to loft a nicely tossed up delivery down the ground. The cat and mouse game continued as the very next ball she stayed back to crack one more pull. Just in one over, Nat Sciver broke the game open, as at the start of that over MI were 82 for 2 in 11.
Every single athlete fails more than enough times. Some are just a bit better at the art of staying in the present and Nat Sciver is certainly one of them. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that she put on impressive performances – both with the bat and ball – at crucial junctures in the WPL.