Follow UsRicha Ghosh being an elite six-hitter isn’t a new insight anymore. It’s a fact as true as the sun rising from the east and setting in the west. That’s why she has hit 104 sixes in the 130 T20 innings she has batted, and hence, stands out in Indian women’s cricket.
However, just because she always had the ability to clear the ropes and target the V with ease, the other aspects of the 21-year-old wicketkeeper’s batting remained underdeveloped for quite sometime. Quick and impactful cameos became her thing, and she was slotted in as the designated finisher of the Indian team.
However, if you look at her batting technique and setup closely, you’ll realise how technically solid she is as a batter when she hits through the line; she doesn’t try to bludgeon the ball across the line. So, despite some of the best-finishing innings seen in the Women’s Premier League, fans and experts expected her to be more than just a batter who came and smashed the ball in the last five overs.
Ghosh had to learn how to approach an innings, pace it, and then finish it properly. The process must have been arduous for the big hitter from Siliguri because her batting position kept being shifted up and down the order, irrespective of the format.
However, since last year or so, Ghosh has been a designated number-five batter in T20s for India and the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). Her ideal entry point shifted up to around the 13th-14th over instead of the last five overs, which she was given to play ever since she joined the Indian team way back in 2020.
That’s why when she scored 64* off 27 in the highest-ever run chase in the WPL, it wasn’t just Ghosh meeting the hopes of everyone who loves to see her bat. It was also her coming of age because RCB were in serious danger of pulling off an RCB in Vadodara, i.e. losing the first game of the season by a big margin and then chasing the net run rate throughout the competition.
Smriti Mandhana and Danni Wyatt-Hodge were out in the second over of the chase itself, after which Ellyse Perry and Raghvi Bisht held RCB’s innings together and took them to 100 in the 11th over when Bisht perished. Perry batted beautifully, hitting some sumptuous boundaries off the backfoot on the off side against the spinners. However, Sayali Satghare got her caught by Laura Wolvaardt when the score was 109/4 in 12.2 overs, and RCB needed 93 runs in 46 deliveries.
That's when Ghosh and Kanika Ahuja (30 off 13) batted with such immense clarity and intensity that they chased down the target with nine deliveries remaining.
While Ghosh was dropped on the first delivery she played in the game, her innings after that included seven fours and four sixes. The most spectacular display of both her power hitting and finesse came in the 16th over against Gardner, who was bowling really well.
The first ball was full and it was drilled towards sweeper cover as Ghosh brought her wrist into play brilliantly to direct the ball in the vacant region without losing the power in the shot. The second delivery was tossed up, and there was no way on god’s green earth that it wouldn't have been a six. Ghosh displayed sheer power to smack it down the ground with the ease of plucking a flower from the garden.
A hat-trick of fours followed those two deliveries as 23 runs came in that over. What stood out in those boundaries were the smarts Ghosh showed as she gently guided the wide but full deliveries from Gardner for four towards the third-man region, which were meant to entice her to play a loose slog. That’s why she had a strike rate of 242.9 on deliveries that were bowled on the fourth to sixth stump line.
The slog and the mishit never came; only the crunch of the 21-year-old’s bat was heard as she smashed the veteran allrounder like a part-time off-spinner, directing her deliveries to the boundary like an adept ringmaster.
Of course, Ghosh ended the record chase with a six to show that while she can learn to play with the tempo of the game, her effortless six-hitting is always the bedrock of her batting.
Last season, Ghosh was crucial to RCB lifting their first-ever trophy. This time, if this innings is any indication, she can be their MVP as we advance in the competition.