(Football news) History is repeating itself again and again as far as the Indian women’s team is concerned. India once again lost to Australia from a very win-able position in the semi final of the T20 World Cup. India women were never favourites going into the match, especially after all-rounder Pooja Vastrakar was ruled out due to illness. Sneh Rana came into the side as a replacement while Radha Yadav and Yastika Bhatia also came in for Rajeshwari Gayakwad and Devika Vaidya. Australia also made a couple of changes as Alyssa Healy recovered from her injury to replace Annabel Sutherland. The experienced Jess Jonassen was also brought in to replace Alana King.
Meg Lanning won the toss and elected to bat first as Australia got off to a really good start. Beth Mooney and Alyssa Healy as usual were very explosive at the top. Mooney scored 54 off 37 balls hitting 7 fours and a six before getting out to Shikha Pandey. Skipper Meg Lanning played a crucial knock of 49* off 34 balls to anchor the Australian innings. Ashleigh Gardner scored a quickfire 31 to take Australia’s total to 172.
India conceded way too many runs especially towards the end of the innings. Renuka Singh Thakur who has been a consistent performer for India women recently remained wicketless and was also very expensive. India’s fielding was abysmal to say the least as they dropped a couple of catches and gave away too many runs due to misfields.
Chasing 172, India women lost their top 3 of Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma and Yastika Bhatia very cheaply. India women were 28/3 inside 4 overs but then Jemimah Rodrigues and Harmanpreet Kaur started the rebuild. The pair kept scoring at a brisk rate and kept India in the game. Rodrigues scored 43 off just 24 balls but then threw her wicket away to Darcie Brown. The right hander is very fidgety at the crease and it led to her downfall as she tried to play an upper cut off a very short ball only to edge to the keeper. The ball would’ve been a comfortable wide had Rodrigues not tried to hit and it ended up costing India dearly.
Harmanpreet Kaur also played a really good knock scoring 52 off 34 balls. She hit 6 fours and 1 six and it looked like the skipper would lead India women to victory. The captain was dismissed in bizarre fashion as while completing a 2nd run her bat got stuck in the pitch and she fell short. The dismissal was unlucky and Harmanpreet was way too casual in her approach. Richa Ghosh could only manage 14 off 17 balls as Darcie Brown got her out. Sneh Rana and Deepti Sharma hit 3 boundaries but it wasn’t enough as India fell 5 runs short.
Australia are a very good team and they have proved it over the past decade. However it isn’t the case of a very high skill gap between the two teams. India women can pretty much hold their own against the Aussies but it is the small margins that end up costing them. The fielding and running between wickets are the two things which end up being the difference. Australia are incredibly quick on the field and rarely put a foot wrong while India look extremely casual.
Also read: How Australia’s chopping and changing is affecting their performance
