India women's opener Smriti Mandhana was spotted bowling with a similar action to India's talismanic batter Virat Kohli during the second Women's ODI against South Africa at M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Wednesday.
Mandhana was brilliant with the bat as he played an innings of 136 off 125 balls and also formed a formed a 171-run partnership with skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, who scored an unbeaten 103 off 88 balls, for the third wicket to help India post 325/3 in 50 overs. Apart from batting, Smriti Mandhana rolled over her arm in Women's in Blue bowling.
India opener made her international bowling debut when she was brought into the attack in 15th over. On the second ball of the over, Smriti Mandhana bagged her maiden international wicket by dismissing Sune Luus at 67/3. Mandhana finished with the figures of 2/16 with an economy rate of 8 in 2 overs.
However, Smriti Mandhana's unorthodox bowling action stunned cricket fans as it resembles Virat Kohli's, who took his first international wicket in 2011, dismissing England batter Kevin Pietersen in a T20I match. Kohli has picked a total of nine international wickets, 5 in ODIs and 4 in T20Is.
The fans took to their social media handles, especially X handle (formerly Twitter) and drew similarities between Kohli and Mandhana's bowling action by calling it 'no.18 connection as they both wear No.18 Indian and RCB Jerseys.
Here's how netizens reacted to Mandhana's bowling action
Team India sealed the three-match ODI series with a narrow 4-run win over South Africa in the 2nd Women's ODI. After posting a total of 325/3 on the board, India managed to circumscribe South Africa to 321/4 despite brilliant centuries from skipper Laura Wolvaardt (135*) and Marizanne Kapp (114).
Wolvaardt and Kapp were brutal with the bat as they unleashed their firepower and took on Indian bowling attack. Eventually, their efforts went in vain.
For India, Deepti Sharma registered the figure 2/56 with an economy rate of 5.6 in four overs, while Pooja Vastrakar picked two wickets while conceding 54 runs with an economy rate of 7.7 in seven overs. Apart from Deepti and Pooja, Arundhati and Smriti Mandhana too contributed to India's bowling by picking a wicket eah.
