Team India batters were on song on Saturday in their third game of the ongoing ICC Women’s World Cup 2022 against West Indies. Coming back from a 62-run thrashing against the hosts New Zealand, the openers Smriti Mandhana and Yastika Bhatia were aggressive right from the start.

Bhatia played a quickfire cameo of 31 runs off just 21 balls before the Women in Blue lost three wickets in quick succession. Mandhana, in her own admission, had to play against her natural game but it was important to build the innings with vice-captain Harmanpreet Kaur.

Mandhana and Kaur then just blew the opposition away, first with the regular rotation of strike, which kept the scorecard ticking and then both coming into their own when they had got their eyes in. Mandhana had got starts in the first two games but couldn’t convert but brought her A-game when it mattered the most.

While Kaur silenced her critics in some fashion as she also notched up her century, her second in the World Cup and fourth of her ODI career, following up a valiant knock of 71 runs against New Zealand.

The duo stitched a whopping 184-run partnership, which was also the highest stand for Indian women’s team in ODIs for the fourth wicket. Mandhana amassed 123 runs, while Kaur ended up scoring 109, which included 10 fours and a couple of sixes.

The duo helped India get to a strong score of 317 runs. Seeing Mandhana-Kaur first revive India’s innings and then launch the attack on the opposition together, the fans including former India opener Virender Sehwag remembered another iconic duo, which wears the same numbers on the jersey – 18 and 7.