The run is over, the dream is gone.
India crashed out of the ICC Women’s World T20 2018 after a comprehensive defeat to England at Antigua. The last big-ticket meeting between the sides – a seismic final to the 2017 World Cup at Lord’s – had ended in India falling excruciatingly short in their bid for a maiden global title in women’s cricket. This time around, the margin was far greater – England won by 8 wickets, with 17 balls to spare.
It leaves India winless in three WT20 semi-finals, while extending the wait for success at an ICC event.
The Quint assesses where things went wrong for Harmanpreet Kaur’s unit.
There’s No Substitute for Experience
Mithali Raj has more runs than any other batswoman in limited overs internationals (8833, FYI). Mithali Raj has more T20I runs than any Indian player – female or male. Mithali Raj had batted twice at the WT20 2018, and made half centuries on both occasions.
It’s the oldest cricketing adage: There’s no substitute for experience. The bigger the game, the more the vitality of years under the belt.
The post-mortem isn’t going to be kind on Harmanpreet Kaur and the Indian think-tank, irrespective of the captain’s defence for the decision. But the evidence on the day doesn’t reflect the brains in great light.
Taniya Bhatia, pushed into an area of immense responsibility, struggled to cope with either the situation or the conditions, if not both. Despite her failure, India weren’t all too badly placed at 88/2 in 13.4 overs on a sluggish wicket. That’s when Jemimah Rodrigues perished, and all the batting options from there – Anuja Patil, picked ahead of Raj, included – showed little application as India contrived to lose eight wickets for 24 runs.
What India needed, was a couple of batsmen to be willing to play second fiddle, dab their way to some smart singles, and allow a well-set Kaur to roll into her upper gears. Instead, the pressure of the scoreboard consumed the Indian skipper. They never recovered once she departed.
The ‘what ifs’ will linger. And pinch, as they should.
There’s No Substitute to Experience, Part II
Where India were left to wonder what their oldest guard could’ve done, England’s senior pros pounced on the big stage to reach yet another global final.
At 24/2 in 5 overs, England were staring at a very real banana-peel chasing a below-par total.
With her team in strife, out walked Natalie Sciver. A World Cup winner and a World T20 runner-up already, the 26-year-old received an early lifeline with Poonam Yadav dropping a sitter with Sciver batting on 2. England’s go-to all-rounder in the limited overs game never looked back, and powered them to the finish line in tandem with Amy Jones.
While Sciver and Jones killed the contest with the bat, the decisive blows had been struck in the first half – headlined by an unusual suspect.
Heather Knight, while certainly a part-time bowler, doesn’t bring herself on to bowl all that often. In England’s run to the semis, she had bowled just one wicketless over against Bangladesh. But seeing the weariness of a one-match old pitch, and perhaps sensing possible frailties among the inexperienced Indian batters, the skipper decided this was going to be her day. With returns of 3/9 in 2 overs, and the wickets of three recognised batsmen, she may well claim it was.
Out-Spun, Out-Done: India Out-Foxed
Among the more frustrating eventualities for any team to endure, is losing at one’s own game. The WT20 semi-final, painfully for India, was one such occurrence.
Coming into the semis, India’s spinners had picked 28 wickets at an average of 14.64; England had 10 at 20.30. On the big night, the English spinners bowled 13.3 overs for figures of 7/71; India’s bowled 17.1 and conceded 116/2.
India fielded just one fast-bowling option for the semi-final, to whom they didn’t hand the ball even once. Such was India’s spin-to-win philosophy for the night. It didn’t quite go to plan.
It’s not just that England’s batters handled it better with the advantage of a never-sky-rocketing asking rate; the six Indian spinners were fairly one-dimensional, and the tactics deployed, easy as it is to call in hindsight, weren’t the finest.
Kaur opted to keep the mid-wicket region vacant for virtually the entire run-chase, and India’s lone single-saving fielder on the leg-side was a short fine leg. Between them, Jones and Sciver scored 61 runs in the ‘V’ between long on and deep mid-wicket – a vast proportion of which they weren’t made to work for.
Having succumbed badly enough to the English spinners during their innings, it was a luxury India couldn’t have afforded to accord England with.
Psychology: It’s For Real
The pundits may say the past counts to little, and games are won ‘on the day’ – with all due respect, the evidence doesn’t support the same.
Accept it or not, the human psyche has its part to play when it comes to crunch games and moments. And the human psyche, while good at forgetting, isn’t quite as effective at erasing.
Which is why the South African men’s team enters every ICC event under the cloud of the ‘C’ word. Which is why it is considered a shock every time the Australian women’s team fails to make a final at the big stage.
India had their ghosts to bury from 2017. The presence of the ghosts may be undermined, but ask the following questions: did India – so good without a blemish in the group stage – panic? Did they go against what had been working for them? Did they over-think themselves into trouble? Would they have done the same if this was still the group stage? Would they have done the same if this wasn’t England?
The answer, to most if not all those questions, is yes. And so the ghost will have to wait to be laid to rest. And so England will feature in a World T20 final for the fourth time. And so India will have to wait further for their crowning glory.
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