The Women in Blue were at it yet again. They made the whole country proud with their performance in the first-ever standalone Women’s T20 World Cup in the West Indies. They have been absolutely brilliant especially in multi-nation ICC events since past couple of years. For the first time ever I feel, people were looking forward to watching our women’s team play the World Cup and the exponential increment in viewership on the digital platform as well as the attendance in the stadiums are testimonials to the rising popularity of women’s cricket world over.

Before the start of the tournament, India did look good enough to be amongst the top four at least. It was always going to be difficult nonetheless. They started the tournament on a positive note with the captain Harmanpreet Kaur leading the way with a spectacular century in double-quick time against the White Ferns. The sixes were massive and most of them were deposited into the stands. This win set the tone for the rest of the tournament and Indian women looked unstoppable from thereon. In the next couple of games, India registered comprehensive victories against Pakistan and Ireland. The slow bowlers had a big part to play in these victories in the first and second innings respectively while Mithali and Co. batted the opposition out of the game.

 

Mandhana, who had had a quiet tournament up until the last of the group stage games, came to her own and completely demolished her Aussie counterparts. Her knock of 80 odd runs and the partnership with Harmanpreet in the middle of the innings helped the team post a competitive total on board. Indian spinners were just too good for the Aussie women in the second innings and they fell short by 48 runs eventually. Indian women were sitting pretty at the top of the points table at the end of the group stage and had booked a place for themselves in the semi-finals. Had Indian women stuck to their plans and executed them perfectly, they would have had their shot at the World Cup trophy in the finals! But as the game progressed, the elusive trophy seemed to be getting further away.

It was a disappointing end to a tournament in which the Indian women were on top of their games for most parts of it. They seem to be getting close to the trophy but somehow manage to blow up their chances, come the knockouts. The experiment to open with Taniya Bhatia failed miserably. She had a good outing behind the stumps though. Jemimah Rodrigues, barring the first game, got starts but failed to convert those into something substantial. Veda was brilliant in the field. She got decent opportunities with the bat but couldn’t make the most of it. Fast bowlers struggled as well. Poonam, Deepti, and Radha were the most effective and together dismantled several batting lineups in the tournament.

The Indian women will return with a mixed bag of emotions from the Caribbean Islands. They played wonderful cricket right through but had one day off and found themselves knocked out of the tournament. But that’s the very nature of this sport and T20 in particular. One cannot let the game drift away even for a moment. One must stay ahead of the game all the time. You let the opposition come in a little and the next thing you know is that you are knocked out.

The Women’s T20 World Cup was a massive hit and things look rather bright for women’s cricket in general. ‘Supporters’ have now graduated to become ‘fans’ of women’s cricket. We are incredibly proud of the fight shown by our girls in the World Cup. We’ll take every loss in our stride and grow along the way.

To me, they are champions already. Here’s to not giving up and getting back up again!