India flex their muscle in prelude to high-voltage Australia clash

The shiny floor gleaming with vitrified tiling at Sharjah's press conference area caused a brief stir as Harmanpreet Kaur walked in with a slight limp. But when you saw her wearing spikes that needed her to be on her toes, it all made sense.

Harmanpreet's opening act was a prelude to Sunday. India need to be on their toes too; a slip-up and New Zealand will be waiting to close in on a semi-final berth, fully knowing what their margins should be against Pakistan on Monday.

It's not ideal, because no matter what India do against Australia, there's going to be a niggling net run-rate equation they can't control. This is something Harmanpreet acknowledged at her pre-match press conference.

"Lot of things we have to keep in mind and play," Harmanpreet said ahead of India's training. "Definitely going there you need a strong mindset, but at the same time we just want to play freely and enjoy our game, because end of the day when you're enjoying, you can always get the results.

"I know it's an important game, just need to keep yourself in the present and see what is required for the team and playing accordingly, I think that's more important."

In the lead-up, India have afforded themselves a luxury no other team has had: the opportunity to train two straight days at the main venue, in this case Sharjah. With matches scheduled everyday, the main venues have been off bounds, with training restricted to the ICC Academy, comprising three floodlit grounds for teams to train and match simulate.

Within minutes of Saturday's afternoon game between New Zealand and Sri Lanka finishing, India were up and away, briskly going through their warm-up with a session of foot volley before diving straight into a range-hitting session besides the main square.

Along with four net bowlers, there were several 'net fielders' stationed at different arcs around the boundary to retrieve balls back as Shafali Verma enjoyed a long bash, alternating with Smriti Mandhana in 10-minute intervals. Shafali regularly deposited balls onto the roof of the pavilion block, while Mandhana's focus was on the 'feel' of timing, only occasionally lofting the ball.

A low-arm slinger, delivering from an unusual angle, a tall six-foot something who only kept hitting the deck and a fully-fit-and-firing Pooja Vastrakar, going full tilt, in what was a sure-shot sign of her having recovered from a hamstring niggle, went hard at Mandhana.

After her net, seemingly wanting some extra attention, she walked across to have a long chat with Amol Muzumdar, the head coach, before gearing up for another hit with Muzumdar chucking short balls from different angles with Mandhana seemingly trying to quickly get into position and pull in front of square. Then she went through a similar pattern of driving on the up to length balls angling away.

Between Mandhana's long stint on the sidelines, Harmanpreet's unwavering focus was on hitting straight and long, by stepping out to spin, a variety of bowling she'll face plenty of on Sunday with Australia having Ash Gardner, Sophie Molineux and Georgia Wareham all likely to be unleashed.

The extra attention to detail was in trying to step out to prevent the ball from hitting the rough patches that had been naturally created from players at short cover/short midwicket scuffing up the area while fielding in the previous game.

After Harmanpreet, Richa Ghosh and Deepti Sharma dug in. Richa was let loose to simply swing to the hills, and she connected more often than not, while Deepti went through an entire range of sweep shots to deliveries spinning in and away from her.

Much of the focus was on the batters in the main net, even as the bowlers separately went through their drills under Aavishkar Salvi's watch. S Asha, the legspinner, and Shreyanka Patil challenged Shafali's big-hitting with some degree of success, while the main seamers simply went through light spot drills before retreating into self-preservation mode.

Quietly on the side, Radha Yadav, who is yet to get a game but has pulled off one of the catches of the tournament while substituting for Harmanpreet, went through elaborate bowling drills and target practice. It's perhaps a sign India are looking at playing an extra bowling option in place of S Sajana, who has barely had any role to play in the two games she has featured in.

Before training, Harmanpreet alluded to how the surfaces have felt a lot better than it seemed on TV, based on their first session on Friday. Saturday merely reaffirmed that notion, Harmanpreet and India wouldn't mind Sunday to be any different, for it'll be a test of their batting might against an opponent who've most often had the better of them in a knockout scenario.

The hours at training, mental conditioning sessions in the backroom and their emphasis on fitness and fielding will all be put to test with India's campaign on the line.