Former India Test player WV Raman, who coached Indian women’s cricket from December 2018 to May 2021, hailed wicketkeeper-batter Richa Ghosh’s cameo as the turning point of Team India’s World Cup final win over South Africa on Sunday.
“The turning point of the final clearly was Richa Ghosh’s little cameo which dented the confidence of the South Africans [Ghosh hammered 34 off 24 balls with three fours and two sixes]. This literally broke the spirit of the SA team. Till 40th over, it looked for the South Africans had things under their control [having pegged back the Indian batters who had a great start initially]. But that’s when Richa came in and took it away [as India posted almost 300 runs [298-7],” Raman told mid-day on Monday.
He also appreciated Harmanpreet Kaur & Co for bouncing back from their three back-to-back defeats [against South Africa, Australia and England in the league phase]. “In the league phase, our team did not perform well. They lost three matches on trot, but the good thing is that they bounced back strongly even after going through lot of grief and criticism.”
Another highlight of Team India’s victorious campaign was Jemimah Rodrigues and Harmanpreet’s 167-run stand in the semi-final win over the mighty Australians. “Jemimah [127 not out] and Harmanpreet’s [89] partnership was one of the biggest highlights of this campaign because it was against [seven-time champions] Australia in a very crunch game,” said Raman, who also credited the lower-order for pulling the team out of a difficult situation in the match against Sri Lanka, where India were struggling at 124/6 in 26.6 overs but then went on to add another 145 runs in the next 20 overs thanks to vital contributions from No. 6 Deepti Sharma 53, No. 8 Amanjot Kaur 57 and No. 9 Sneh Rana (28).