From Bandra to Benoni: The craft and chaos of Under-19 spinner Mannat Kashyap

Mannat Kashyap (Photo by Annesha Ghosh)

Mannat Kashyap had made heads turn much before she turned India’s match against Scotland on its head at the ongoing inaugural U-19 women’s T20 World Cup with a four-four in Benoni on Wednesday.

Last month, during India’s bilateral series against hosts South Africa U-19s, Kashyap, the left-arm spinner from the northern Indian city of Patiala, unwittingly invoked the dubious ‘Spirit of Cricket’ after clips of her attempted run-out of non-striker Jenna Evans in the opening T20 in Pretoria emerged on social media.

On cue, the cricket-talking demographic on Twitter swiftly picked sides. Arguments in support of, and against, Kashyap’s act came thick and fast. Unsurprisingly, out came many a self-anointed guardian of the ‘Spirit’. Unfortunately, most of them thought little before vilifying Kashyap, then 18, for her perfectly lawful bid.

Mannat doing Mannat things.

(Mannat Kashyap did it against Izzy Gaze in the match against NZ Development team as well.)#CricketTwitter#SAU19vINDU19 pic.twitter.com/047VsFkvvU

— Krithika (@krithika0808) December 27, 2022

Foremost among the voices who condemned Kashyap, with little to no word on the non-striker’s law-breaking, advantage-stealing conduct in the episode, was England Women batter Danielle Wyatt. Given her following of over 240,000 on Twitter, it was a matter of time before her quoted-tweet of a video of the attempted run-out shared by user @Krithika0808 took the clip’s count of views to over 150,000.

“Oh no, I hope there’s none of this in the u19 WC!” Wyatt had captioned the tweet, which now stands deleted. It had two emojis -- a woman facepalming and a sickly-green nauseated face -- to go with the text.

For a skilled spinner who, in the lead-up to the U-19 World Cup, had established herself, through her performance on the domestic circuit and international series alike, as one of the most promising talents to watch at the world tournament, the discourse around Kashyap, at least on social-media, took on an unfavourable hue. But if the world needed any reminding of the many talents that made her a potent threat with the ball anyway, her figures of 4-0-4-12 on Wednesday at the U-19 World Cup did just that.

The best returns for an Indian in the World Cup so far, Kashyap’s four-wicket-haul came in an adroitly controlled unbroken spell delivered inside the first 10 overs of Scotland’s unsuccessful 152-run chase. Each of her four dismissals accompanied by six synchronised claps and a celebratory jig with vice-captain Shweta Sehrawat, her four-four helped set up the India U-19s’ commanding 85-run victory in Group D and propelled them into the Super Six stage with three wins in as many matches.

Kashyap, for her part, finished the group stages of the World Cup as its joint-second-highest wicket-taker, and the highest among the Indians, from just the two matches she played. Her five wickets from a combined seven overs across the two innings – she found her maiden wicket in the tournament in UAE No. 4 Rinitha Rajith in the second fixture – cost just 26 runs. Of the 42 deliveries she bowled, 27 were dots.

That Kashyap, a seasoned performer in age-group cricket for her state side Punjab, would take centrestage at the U-19 World Cup was a matter of when, not if. An indication of her efficacy as a spinner emerged in the India U-19s’ last home assignment before the world event. During their bilateral series against the New Zealand Development side at the Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai, Kashyap had run through the opposition line-up with a guileful 5 for 25 from her 3.3 overs.

Defending 121 in that game, the India U-19s had called upon Kashyap’s services as early as the second over. But her spell got off to a wobbly start as opener Olivia Gain carted her for three back-to-back fours in her opening over. Kashyap, however, bowled herself back into ascendancy by targeting the line just outside the off stump, tossing the ball up generously at times and firing them in at others. In no time, she had the best figures on the day, the New Zealand Development lower-middle order bearing the most brunt of her relentlessly attacking lines.

How quickly Kashyap typically goes through her spell, is often reflective of the disruptive energy she can inject into the run of play. With little time to get the measure of her strengths, batters end up playing catch up, considering Kashyap’s tight lines offer them little room to mount an offensive. Conservatism in shot-making creeps in. Use of the feet to come down the track becomes a dangerous proposition for the batting side. The run-flow slows down.

Against Scotland in the U-19 World Cup, Kashyap brought the same game-changing momentum to India’s performance with the ball. New Zealand had got off to one of their fastest starts in the tournament, racking up 23 in the first three overs. Kashyap’s introduction the fourth, however, saw both openers – Darcey Carter and Alisa Lister – beaten for turn more than once each across the first five deliveries.

Their fluency threatened, both batters tried lunging forward to tackle the spin Kashyap would reap off the turf, albeit mostly in vain. A good-length delivery pitched just outside off elicited a similar response from Lister in the final ball of Kashyap’s first over. But the right-hand batter lobbed the ball straight up towards cover, where Sehrawat gobbled it up with ease and then scampered towards Kashyap to break into their celebratory dance.

#U19T20WorldCup #INDvSCO#Repost @BCCIWomen#TeamIndia won by 85 runs#MannatKashyap picked up 4 wickets & named player of the match Congratulations #pca #pcanews #punjab #cricket #India #TeamIndia #womenteam #pcawomen #womencricket #ICC #IndiaWomen #punjabwomen pic.twitter.com/YfmCHWl5En

— Punjab Cricket Association (@pcacricket) January 18, 2023

Granted, the surface at Willowmoore Park had much more for the spinners than the belters India played their previous two games on. That all of the nine Scotland U-19s wickets that fell went to India’s spinners, including three to offspinner Archana Devi and two to Sonam Yadav, the second left-arm spinner in the squad, underlined the relative slowness of the pitch.

But that should take away little from Kashyap’s street-smart bowling, her command over her craft and her enviable control, that saw her take one wicket in each of her four overs against the Scotland U-19s. Emma Walsingham, Kashyap’s second wicket on the day, too, succumbed to the outside-the-off-stump line.

The only difference discernable at first glance from the ball that did Lister in was the slightly shorter length that had the Scotland U-19 No. 3 Walsingham defensively push the ball to the offside. The jab bereft of power, the shot precariously aerial, it found G. Trisha putting in an athletic dive forward at cover to send back Walsingham for a duck.

Kashyap found her third wicket in the Scotland U-19s captain Katherine Fraser, the two-down batter’s attempted scoop unsuccessful in the face of Kashyap’s well-measured flight and fullish length. No. 5 Emily Tucker’s sweep, too, was no answer to Kashyap’s persistence with the marginally-outside-off line.

Even before the innings reached the halfway mark, Kashyap had taken out four of the top five in the opposition line-up. With just 54 on the board at the time for the loss of six wickets, the Scotland U-19s’ botched chase was a foregone conclusion.

Player of the Match vs Scotland: Mannat Kashyap#U19T20WC | FanCodehttps://t.co/xGjHI4pUCB pic.twitter.com/fuGQauOm9r

— Annesha Ghosh (@ghosh_annesha) January 18, 2023

“I enjoyed bowling here,” Kashyap, adjudged Player of the Match, said at the post-play presentation. “There was turn on the pitch, sure, but not as much we were expecting, or what you would have in India.”

Asked if sitting out the first match, on Saturday, January 14, as India opted for Yadav brought with it an element of pressure when she replaced her fellow left-arm spinner in the second game, Kashyap said: “I was under no pressure to having to prove myself when I got my chance in the second game. I had faith in my skills and the support staff, and the support staff and the team showed confidence in me. I played with ease.”

Arguably the best spinner in the India U-19s squad, it’s unlikely the Shafali Verma-led side will field an XI again at the World Cup without Kashyap in it as they progress in their pursuit of a maiden world title for an Indian women’s cricket team. That’s down to the fact all too known by now, that Kashyap disrupts, and disrupts well. All she needs is a ball in hand.