{ "id": "73315", "author": "23", "cnmid": "0", "title": "The Idea That Helped Shafali Verma In Playing Attacking Shots ", "lang": "en", "series": "1", "cup_year": "2021", "article_type": "General", "excerpt": "When the Indian women team's batter, Shafali Verma, was entering her teens, her father would take her and her older brother to a ground near their house and engage in a competition that would see ", "subtype": "", "editor1": "

When the Indian women team's batter, Shafali Verma, was entering her teens, her father would take her and her older brother to a ground near their house and engage in a competition that would see the three bat for a reward of Rs.5 or sometimes Rs.10.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Shafali, who won Player of the Series award in the T20I series against South Africa on Tuesday despite India losing the series, played some scintillating knocks in the series. She hammered a 30-ball 60 on Tuesday night to lead India to a consolation win.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

"She learnt to play attacking cricket from an early age. One of the things that helped her get into the attacking mould was a drill that we did together. I would pick an odd time, after 11 am or so, and take her and my son Sahil to the ground. I chose odd time to ensure there would be no crowd. Each of us would face six balls and whoever would hit most sixes or fours would get a reward of Rs.5 and sometimes Rs.10," father Sanjeev Verma, who runs a jewellery shop on Railway Road in Rohtak, told.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

"For a 12 or 13-year-old, Rs.5 or Rs.10 was great. This drill went on daily for about four months and the base of her big-hitting was set," adds Verma.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

When Shafali was just a nine-year-old, Verma had taken her to get admitted to the local Shri Ram Narain Academy, run by former Haryana coach Ashwani Kumar.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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"We did not have money to enroll her back then. But when she started doing well in school games tournaments (School Games Federation of India-run events) and I realised that there was no future in that, I decided to enroll her as 12-year-old to Shri Ram Narain Academy. We had by then managed the money too. She never looked back and was supported by coach Ashwani and Ranbir Singh Mahendra [former BCCI president]," added Verma.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Ashwani Kumar says Shafali was always a hard-hitter.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

"At the start when we saw her talent, when she was less than 12, we began making her practice with the boys -- with the current Ranji Trophy players like medium-pacers Ashish Hooda, Sumit Kumar, Ajit Chahal, and off-spinner Amit Rana," he says.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

"She plays fearless cricket and has god-gifted talent. She has a good hand-eye coordination."<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Father Verma says that they realised fairly early that Shafali would succeed only through hard-hitting.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

"We realised that if she hits big and hard, only then would she get through. So, we worked on that aspect," he added.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

During the lockdown last year, it helped that the old equipment like dumb-bells of Shafali's father were at home.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

"During lockdown she practiced with hanging ball and also did shadow practice. She ran up and down the staircase," said Verma.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Shafali was ignored for the ODIs and not picked in the Indian team that lost the series to South Africa women 4-1 just prior to the T20Is.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

The right-handed batter, however, says she needs to work on fitness.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

"I need to work more on my fitness, and [getting picked for] one-day side would be my goal. Not getting named in the ODI squad is a motivation for me, really, to play even better and break into the side. I wasn't too disappointed but I saw it as a huge motivating factor," she said after Tuesday's match-winning innings in Lucknow.<\/p>\r\n", "image": "https:\/\/img.cricketnmore.com\/uploads\/2021\/03\/shafali-verma-retains-top-spot-in-icc-t20i-rankings2.jpg", "alt_img": "Cricket Image for The Idea That Helped Shafali Verma In Playing Attacking Shots ", "alt_title": "Shafali Verma", "image1": "", "video": "", "seo_title": "The Idea That Helped Shafali Verma In Playing Attacking Shots On Cricketnmore", "seo_desc": "Shafali Verma is the youngest woman cricketer to debut for India at the age of 15. ", "seo_keywords": "Shafali Verma", "tag": "", "tagging": "Shafali Verma,", "status": "1", "img_rpt": "0", "google": "1", "standout": "0", "edapps": "0", "pulse": "0", "no_index": "0", "feed": "0", "fixture": "0", "slug": "the-idea-that-helped-shafali-verma-in-playing-attacking-shots", "user_id": "0", "read_count": "0", "ians_date": "0000-00-00", "ians_time": "00:00:00", "server_time": "0000-00-00 00:00:00", "trash": "0", "view_count": "2588", "page_break": "0", "instant_articles": "1", "auto_link": "1", "created": "2021-03-25 10:50:10", "updated": "2021-03-25 11:19:38", "img_from": "Image Source: AFP", "img_source": "", "schedule_publish": "0000-00-00 00:00:00", "news_keywords": "Shafali Verma, Women Cricket, Shafali Verma T20, Shafali Verma Story", "livescore_text": null, "livescore_link": null, "btn_text": null, "resend_feed": "0", "google_feed": "0", "read_more": "0", "posted_by": "12", "jio_date": "2021-03-25 10:50:10", "scheduled": "0", "news_now": "1", "breaking_news": "0", "google_date": "2021-03-25 10:50:10", "featured": "0", "pred_match_id": null, "article_content_type": null, "england_cricket": "0", "link": "https:\/\/www.cricketnmore.com\/cricket-news\/the-idea-that-helped-shafali-verma-in-playing-attacking-shots-73315" }