Women's Cricket
How a summer camp led S Meghana to cricket from medicine or engineering
In the absence of regular opener Mandhana against New Zealand, Meghana has proved her worth for the opening position.
Indian opening batter S Meghana (Source: BCCI)
Even though India has failed to register a win in the New Zealand series yet, young batter Sabbhineni Meghana has left no stones unturned in her batting.
In the absence of star Indian opener Smriti Mandhana, who was quarantined during the first two ODIs against New Zealand, Meghana stepped in to replace her.
During the second ODI, Meghana scored 49 off 50 balls, falling short of just a run for a half-century. She helped the team put a total of 270 runs, which India failed to defend.
In the third ODI today, Meghana scored a brilliant 61 runs off 41 balls, completing her half-century this time. However, even after a massive total of 279 and a couple of early wickets, India lost the third ODI as well as the series against the Kiwis, with two matches remaining.
S Meghana had made her debut for the Indian team in 2016 when she was just 20-year-old. Since she didn't have an extraordinary outing with the team back then, her journey was cut short.
However, this did not demotivate the right-hand batter, who in the last four years has been a consistent performer with the Indian Railways team.
Hailing from Andhra Pradesh, as a kid, Meghana was set to pursue a career in engineering or medicine, but a summer camp in her school led her towards the cricket pitch.
Her father who is worked as a divisional engineer with NTPC thermal power station and her mother who is a homemaker, have always encouraged her to follow her dreams.
Openers S Meghana and Shafali Verma in action (Source: Rediff)
In an interview with the Female Cricket, Meghana mentions talking about her mother's support during her training day, "My mother, who held the fort at home, left no stone unturned when it came to my practice and my routines. She used to wake up at 3.30 am and wake me up at 4 am. Together we used to board the bus at 4.30 am from Ibrahimpatnam to reach Indira Gandhi Municipal Stadium for practice that started at 6 am."
Before the New Zealand series began, Meghana had said she was ready to grab big opportunities when it comes her way and she certainly did.
India will play its fourth ODI against New Zealand on February 22 at Queenstown Events Centre, at 3.30 am IST.
