Women’s T20 World Cup: India report card – Harmanpreet Kaur’s team fail big time

Also, when a team keeps losing knockout games year after year, it hints towards a bigger problem, it gives away the fact the side is not competent enough to react to the magnanimity of the game.

On Thursday, India Women lost their semi-final match by five runs. In the Women’s T20 World Cup, India Women have now lost the semi-final of 2018, the final in 2020 and again the semi-final in 2023. The loss in the Gold medal match at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games is also sandwiched between them.

India Women’s T20 World Cup 2023 campaign never had that impetus. A few performances from individual players here and there, and the team somehow kept on winning matches to reach into the semi-finals.

In the first match Pakistan Women managed to score 149 runs for the loss of just four wickets after batting first. The same side was restricted to 99 by England, 113 by West Indies in the ongoing competition. In a T20 series against Australia in January, Pakistan Women were bundled out for 118 in the first match and restricted to 97/7 in the second.

Jemimah Rodrigues (53* off 38) and Richa Ghosh (31* off 20) played stellar knocks to save the day for India.

The second match against West Indies should have been the eye-opener for India. The Women in Blue took as many as 18.1 overs to chase a 119-run target. The bowlers pulled their socks in the match but the batting unit was again put under pressure. Ghosh (44* off 32) again saw India through.

The third match proved that India Women are still not ready to become a champion side. The bowlers performed decently to hold England onto 151/7 but the batters again fumbled in front of a strong opposition. Smriti Mandhana scored his first fifty of the tournament but the batters following her scored 8, 13 and 4. Ghosh (47* off 34) came with another spirited performance but that too went in vain this time.

Strong teams have this natural tendency of stealing away close matches and England just did that. Later, in the semi-final Australia also showed India how the job is done.

India defeated Ireland by five runs (DLS method) in their last group match to book a berth in the semi-final. But the batters again failed. Mandhana scored 87 in the match but the likes of Shafali Verma (24), Harmanpreet (13), and Deepti Sharma (0) failed to get going. Ghosh and Rodrigues could also score 0 and 19 runs respectively. Ireland’s batting unit had also recovered after losing their first two wickets for the score of one. Chasing a revised target of 60 in 8.2 overs, Ireland fell just five runs short with eight wickets in hand.

The run in the league stage lacked flair, purpose and domination. Those four matches were the precursors of what was coming in the semi-final. Australia gave another lesson on how to play knockout matches.

Each of their top four batters adapted the aggressive technique and attacked from the ball one. The result was there to be seen – each of the five India Women bowlers used ended up with an economy rate of 7.50 or more. Already under the scoreboard pressure of chasing 173, India were reduced to three for 28 in 3.4 overs. Quickfire 43 off 24 from Rodrigues, and 52 off 34 from Kaur definitely made India the favourite at one point of time but that ‘winning mentality’ of a champion team again brought back Australia in the competition.

‘Big-match blunders’

All was going well for India when Rodrigues went for an untimely and unnecessary ramp shot. A very short ball from Darcie Brown was poked by the right-hander as the ball took a faint edge and landed into the hands of the wicketkeeper. Had Rodrigues left the ball, the umpires most probably would have declared it a wide ball. A player middling the ball and collecting runs with proper cricketing shots could have avoided that at a juncture as critical as that, in a match as big as that.

Harmanpreet had struggled for runs in the group stage but in the semi-final she came all guns blazing. The 33-year-old was in a zone and a win was at a touching distance but a run-out dismissal threw India off the track. Her bat got stuck just before the popping crease and her dismissal has been widely called unfortunate and unlucky. But it’s neither and can’t be compared to MS Dhoni’s run-out in the semi-final of the 2019 World Cup. The former captain was running like a tracer bullet while trying to survive the rocket from Martin Guptill. Here, a closer look will tell you that Harmanpreet took the second run too casually. Those kinds of singles are often seen being taken in the 30th over of a bilateral ODI game when the batter and fielders both are in mood to take things slowly.

With both the set batters gone, 34 runs came off the last 32 balls and India ended up losing the match by five wickets. Ghosh, who was scintillating in the group stage, scored 14 off 17.

India Women report card highlights

Below-par batting

• Just three (Shafali, Smriti and Ghosh) India Women batters averaged over 30. These were also the only three batters who carried a strike rate in excess of 130.

• No batter in the team had a 140-plus strike rate. Apart from Shafali, Smriti and Ghosh – all the batters had a strike rate of under 110.

• This is in stark contrast with teams like Australia and England. Three Australia Women batter had an average in excess of 40 (Meg Lanning – 69.50, Alyssa Healy – 57 and Ashleigh Gardner). Three batters (middle and lower middle-order) carried a strike rate in excess of 160.

• From the England camp, Nat Sciver-Brunt (176 runs, AVG- 88 and SR- 147.89) and Amy Jones (99 runs, AVG- 33, SR- 141.42) have scored the majority of the runs with a healthy average and a staggering strike-rate. Apart from them two more batters have 150-plus strike rates.

India bowlers way behind their Australia and England counterparts

• No India bowler has an economy rate under six-run per-over. Pacer Renuka Singh is the leading wicket-taker with seven wickets. Notably, five of those wickets came against England. She is the only bowler from the team with a bowling average under 20.

• Australia off-spinner Grace Harris has an economy rate of 2.33. Pacer Brown has leaked only 4.70 runs per over. Georgia Wareham (6.21), Megan Schutt (6.22), Ellyse Perry (6.28) and Ashleigh Gardner (6.56) have been impressive with their economy rates. Each of their bowlers except for Jess Jonassen who played only two matches are averaging under 15.

• The England Women bowlers have an economy rate of under six. Nat Sciver-Brunt has an economy rate of 6.14. Katherine Sciver-Brunt (7.29) and all-rounder Charlie Dean (7.57) have also done a decent job. Two bowlers from the team are averaging under 11.

India Women have surely failed to crack the code to become the T20 World Cup champions thus far. There is a clear similarity between Australia and England’s style of play and India will have to take a cue.