She started throwing back the ball hit by her younger brother and once given the bat to make her brother run around and collect the ball, Sneha Deepthi liked the game of cricket.
Today she created a record for highest individual total in Andhra cricket, slamming 350 for Visakhapatnam against Srikakulam in a league match of ACA North Zone inter-district women’s tournament at MVGR College of Engineering ground, Chintalavalsa near Vizianagaram.
When she was eight years old, her father Ramakrishna, an employee of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant sent Sneha and her younger sister Ramya Deepika to a summer coaching camp after her stint with hitting the ball hard for her brother to pick up. Both showed keen interest and doing well which made Mr. Ramakrishna and his wife Dayamani to shift their residence from Ukkunagaram to PM Palem, some 50 km away so that both can be under constant watch of coach Krishna Rao at the ACA-VDCA stadium. “Her game totally changed after we shifted to PM Palem and Mr. Krishna Rao started coaching,” recalls Mr. Ramakrishna.
Sneha Deepthi soon got noticed and during 2013 she made her debut in the Indian team for the ODIs and T20s against Bangladesh.
“Now my aim is to get back into the Indian team and this knock made me more confident,” Sneha Deepthi says over phone from Vizianagaram.
Big achievement
Sneha Deepthi is the first woman cricketer of Andhra to score a double ton, 203 not out against East Godavari in senior women inter-district match after making 150 in an earlier match, in 2013. Then she hit 250 at Guntur. “When I went in today I wanted to better that 250 mark. Idea was to dominate the bowlers and smash the loose balls. I played many lofted shots and drives today,” she says of the knock which consisted of 58 fours and 11 sixes and came off 166 balls. She opened with her sister Ramya who scored 40 plus runs. She better the record of 308 runs scored by M. Harika Yadav of Srikakulam against East Godavari in an under-19 match on June 27 at Viziangaram.
Secretary of VDCA K. Parthasaradhi said both girls are dedicated while Sneha is keen on coming back to the Indian team. Sneha is playing in the junior league of VDCA, introduced this year, in which boys and girls play together. She is doing well in this league, Mr. Parthasardhi says and expresses confidence that Sneha will be back in the Indian team soon.
ACA official statistician Phani says knocks made by Sneha Deepthi now and Harika some time ago might be the highest by women cricketers in India. This could not be confirmed because statistics and records of Indian women’s cricket were not systematically filed and preserved in the past.
