Chennai: Munish Bali, the fielding coach of India women’s cricket team, lauded wicketkeeper-batter Uma Chetry for being a real hard-working cricketer and added that he was happy to see her pull off the stumping of Tazmin Brits in the second T20I at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.
In the match, Uma got to make her India debut in place of Richa Ghosh and nerves got the better of her when she effected a stumping of Tazmin, only for replays to show that she collected the ball ahead of stumps, giving the opener a breather at five.
When Tazmin was batting on 77, Uma was quick to collect a Deepti Sharma delivery lowly and completed the stumping in electrifying fashion, which was followed by an animated celebration.
She had been a member of India ‘A’ side winning Emerging Women’s Asia Cup last year and was drafted in as a replacement player for injured Vrinda Dinesh in the UP Warriorz camp in WPL 2024. Previously, Uma filled in for Jemimah Rodrigues to field at short leg in the one-off Test at Chennai.
“I was really happy when she got that debut cap. In the Test, she fielded for more than 70-80 overs. She is a brave, brave girl. First game, standing at short-leg is not an easy job especially in women’s cricket because they’re not used to playing so much of red-ball cricket. She got hit by the ball also, and she still she stood there. Normally, a player would have come out and rested a bit but she was in the middle, trying her best.
“And, you know what she told me after getting hit? ‘If I would have instead held on to that catch, it would have been amazing’. She was in pain but she was still thinking about that chance. That’s a lovely attitude to have. She is a real hard-worker from what we’ve seen in the practice sessions also. I was truly happy for her to eventually complete that Brits’ stumping,” said Bali after the match ended, with rain washing out the second T20I.
India had been sloppy in their fielding, including dropping three catches, in the first T20I, where they lost by 13 runs. But the second T20I saw them put up a much-improved show in ground fielding. Bali said he was pleased with how the side went about its fielding on Sunday evening.
“It’s difficult to grip the ball when it’s drizzling. But still, we fielded very well. We are working on it (fielding) and it’s in progress as we keep getting better slowly. No one drops catches intentionally.
“The players have been practising hard during our (training) sessions, giving their best. At times, things click, and sometimes, it doesn’t. Errors happen during matches. So, we keep telling them to keep giving their best and results will follow,” he concluded.
