Indian women and England women played one of the finest and closely-fought matches of the tournament and the hosts trumped the underdogs by nine runs to clinch the Women’s World Cup. The match, which was a rollercoaster ride saw both the teams taking a lead in the match, only to give it up later.
After scoring 228 runs in the first innings, the hosts were in a spot of bother with India cruising towards the total. However, the English team held on to their nerves and finished the match as champions of Women’s cricket premier tournament.
On the other hand, the Women in Blue were marching towards the total at 191 for the loss of three wickets, however, they lost their next seven wickets in a space of 28 runs to hand England the trophy. Here are five things which the Indian team did wrong to end up on the losing side.
#1 Inability to stop England’s top order early on
The Indian eves had bagged early wickets in almost all of the matches which they won. However, when push came to shove, they failed to neutralise the England top order, which affected them negatively at the end of the match.
India’s opening bowling duo of Jhulan Goswami and Shikha Pandey failed to limit the scoring rate as well. England’s openers added 47 runs before Lauren Winfield 24(35) lost her wicket to first change Rajeshwari Gayakwad in the 12th over.
Sarah Taylor then came on to the crease, and along with her, Tammy Beaumont added another 13 runs before going down to Poonam Yadav.
#2 Shikha Pandey’s spell
What Shikha Pandey had done right throughout the tourney was landing early blows on the opposition. With Jhulan Goswami tightening the screws from one end, it was Pandey who used to make full use of the pressure and add to her wicket-count.
However, in this match, as Jhulan was bowling one tidy over after another, Shikha was leaking runs at the other end. In her first three overs, the 28-year-old bowler gave away 21 runs, which forced Mithali Raj to introduce spin from the eighth over itself.
After being brought back into the attack later, Shikha gave away runs at an even more alarming rate and ended with figures of 7-0-53-0.
#3 Failure to pick wickets at the death
After Sarah Taylor and Natalie Sciver’s 83-run partnership for the fifth wicket, ODI cricket’s highest wicket-taker Jhulan Goswami struck thrice in three overs. The scoreboard read 164 for six, with number seven Katherine Brunt and no. eight Jenny Gunn on the crease.
With Jhulan finishing her quota of 10 overs by the 40th of the innings, none of the Indian bowlers managed to strike further blows to the English side. Brunt went on to score 34 runs while Gunn added 25 runs, eventually taking England’s total to 228.
Had Indian bowlers tightened the screws then, the hosts might well have seen their innings finish before the 200-run mark.
#4 Smriti Mandhana fails to give the team a solid start, again!
The 20-year-old left-hander, who took the tournament by storm with her performances in the first two match, failed to provide a steady start to the team yet again. With a not-so-big target of 228 to chase, all the Indian team needed was a good start.
However, the opener, fell to the eventual player of the match Anya Shrubsole, without troubling the scoreboard in the second over itself. What her early wicket did was force the middle order to take a more cautious approach and do the majority of work.
After adding 196 runs in the first two matches, Mandhana managed just 36 runs in her next seven.
#5 Failure to keep composure with target in sight
Few would have put their money on the English women after Punam Raut-Harmanpreet Kaur’s 95-run partnership and Punam-Veda Krishnamurthy’s 53-run stand left India needing just 38 runs, with seven wickets and as many overs in hand.
Raut then became Shrubsole’s second victim. The Englishwoman then went on to bag four more wickets, those of Veda, Goswami, Deepti Sharma and Rajeshwari Gayakwad, and effect a run-out in the space of 28 runs and six overs.
While Veda played her part with a knock of 35 runs, none of the lower order batswomen showed composure and failed to drag India to the target.
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