When you’re up against top-class teams like South Africa and Australia, even a momentary lapse can prove costly. For the second successive match here at the YSR Stadium, the Indian women faltered when it mattered most and lost a game they ought to have won. Both times, the bowling attack was found wanting. If you cannot defend 330 on your home soil, it becomes difficult to be rated as a strong contender to win the World Cup.
After failing to defend a target in the previous match against South Africa two days ago, India desperately needed a win against Australia to boost their morale, especially with England and New Zealand as their next two opponents. The hosts will now have to win at least two of the remaining three matches — with the last game against Bangladesh — to have a chance of making it to the semi-finals.
Amol Muzumdar
Record chase by Aussies
No side had ever chased down a 300-plus target in a Women’s World Cup game before Australia’s record chase here on Sunday. In retrospect, India’s total of 330 was about 20-runs short, with the lower order unable to bolster the total in the slog overs. Though India lost the last six wickets for a mere 36 runs, the target they set was still formidable. But then, the Aussies are master chasers, and they proved it again with their skipper, Alyssa Healy, playing a high-class innings. They did have a few anxious moments at the fag end, but Ellyse Perry was there to see the defending champions home with six balls to spare. Talking to the media after the defeat, Indian head coach Amol Muzumdar rued the fact that the lower order could not add crucial runs that could have made a big difference. “The finish in a cricket game is very important. Yes, we need a good start, but we need a better finish. So, if you see the finish that we had in the South Africa game, as far as bowling is concerned, in the last five overs we ended up losing that game, and even today, basically, if we had got another 20 runs, maybe things would have been different,” the coach said.
Muzumdar added, “At the same time, it’s been a gradual progress for us and there are a lot of learnings. I keep talking about positives and learnings. One of the things to learn is to finish well.”
‘Late wickets hurt’
Captain Harmanpreet Kaur also echoed her coach’s sentiments, saying, “The way we started we could have got 30-40 runs [more], but we kept losing wickets in the last 6-7 overs. It was a good batting wicket and we didn’t capitalise [on it totally]. In the last three games, we were not able to bat in the middle overs, and at that time the lower order took the responsibility and did the job for us. But today, the first 40 overs were really good and the last 10 overs we did not execute that well.”
Talking about the bowling combination, especially playing with just five bowlers, one of them a batting all-rounder in Amanjot Kaur, Muzumdar said, “After this game we’ll have a look at it and I’m sure the team management will have a proper discussion about [the combination] and then we’ll take the right call as we approach the next game [against England in Indore].”