After an excellent campaign in the entire T-20 Women’s World Cup, the Indian team was slammed face-first into the post by a phenomenal Australia in the final showdown.
With a mountain of 185 to climb to clinch their maiden T-20 World title, India was dealt a telling blow in the very first over when Shafali Verma, India’s most consistent and destructive batter of the tournament was dismissed by Megan Schutt. Without any significant partnership brewing, the Indian batting crumbled like a house of cards and was finally taken out of their torment at a miserly 99. Australia’s convincing victory in the final left the Indian team with too many questions.
Alyssa Healy stormed India with her blitzkrieg performance as she fired a match-winning 75 off just 39 deliveries. This was Australia’s fifth trophy in the course of the tournament while they became the second team to win the trophy at home, after England who performed the same feat in the inaugural edition of the fray in 2009
Indian skipper, Harmanpreet Kaur came down the pike for the first time since that crushing defeat at the hands of the World Champions
According to her, Indian cricket for women is still 5-6 years behind the Australian culture. Kaur mentioned that the Australian and English teams who are multiple time world champions have built a robust cricketing culture over the years, wherein India is still bolstering their domestic cricket. Despite the rising tide, the time hasn’t yet arrived for Indian Women’s cricket to take flight at an unrestrained speed.
Now, this comment sparked a few controversies as well, given India’s thrilling victory over Australia in their World Cup opener. A Poonam Yadav masterclass bowled out a stuttering Australia for a paltry 115, defending a low total of 132. Despite, Alyssa Healy once again firing early, the rest of the Australian batting line up couldn’t really gather what it took to outsmart the duo of Poonam and Shikha Pandey as they shared 7 wickets between them.
Experts believe that the Indian cricketing side has failed to leave a lasting impression as they lacked nerves in the final hurdle. A similar collapse in the 2017 World Cup finally crushed India’s World cup hopes despite coming within inches of the trophy. With only 38 runs to gather and with six wickets in hand, all India could manage was a meager 28 runs giving Anya Shrubsole her career-best figures.
What probably lacked in Kaur’s speech was to highlight the need for a mental expert who will keep the team together in dark times and will train them to sustain pressure. Time and again it has been proved that cricket isn’t about storming gigantic sixers or bowling clinically perfect yorkers. The mind games have always been an intrinsic part of the 22-yard battle and Kaur and her comrades will do better to learn the same.
