Harmanpreet Kaur let out a few sighs and struggled to find the right words to explain just how India managed to lose their ICC Women’s World Cup match against England on Sunday. Now they have pushed near-invincible Australia to their limits and came out on the wrong end of thrillers against England and South Africa.
With their campaign veering off track with three straight defeats, it is important to identify where India have gone wrong, because their hopes of a semifinal spot are still very much in their own hands.
In Indore, India managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory because – as Smriti Mandhana admitted in the press conference – they got their shot selection messed up. With just around a run a ball required, Smriti herself went for an ill-advised lofted shot and ended up finding the fielder. Despite being a batter short, India still had enough firepower left to close the chase, but nobody managed to get the job done. The defeat, essentially, wasn’t a skill issue, but of mindset.
“The important thing in these situations is not to overthink or get ahead of yourselves,” former India head coach WV Raman told The Indian Express on Monday. “Because they were sitting pretty when that partnership between Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana was going on. Maybe people probably went a bit ahead of themselves. That sometimes can upset the applecart.”
Such collapses from winning positions have been seen in the past too. Raman called for the Indian team to stay calm in these situations.
“Pipe down a little bit mentally,” Raman said. “It’s a case of emotional management in a tight game. So you have to not get too excited about things. Be calm, take some time and think clearly.”
While losing to Australia is understandable, because of the undeniable gulf in class between the teams, the performances against South Africa and England should sting India.
The Proteas needed 81 off the last 10 overs from where Nadine de Klerk played a blinder, exposing the Indian pacers’ lack of experience under pressure as she targeted Kranti Gaud and Amanjot Kaur. Australia’s Alyssa Healy did the same in the world-record run chase a couple of nights later.
This prompted India to add Renuka Singh Thakur in place of a batter – and while she didn’t light up the Holkar Stadium with her bowling, her presence provided Harmanpreet with the flexibility to shuffle her bowling options, which eventually restricted England.
That it was Jemimah Rodrigues who made way for the change, however, raised a few eyebrows.
“When there’s a change in the team, we tend to overlook the subtle shift in balance in terms of the strength of the relative departments. If you take the England game, India went with an additional bowler at the expense of a batter. Then, when you are chasing, it effectively means that your strength, which was normally the batting unit, has been slightly disturbed and you’re using that slightly diluted suit second, under pressure,” Raman reasoned.
But the former Indian batter was quick to add that the selection call wasn’t why they lost the match.
“We can say that instead of Jemi, somebody else could have been benched. But they felt that they needed somebody at the top of the order to provide the start. It’s easy to be judgmental from the outside, but I don’t think they lost because of the XI fielded. It should have been closed out by the players picked.”
There is an acknowledgment within the leadership group that India are struggling to close out positions of advantage. They let South Africa off the hook in the middle overs. They finished with 329 against Australia,but fell at least 30 short of where they could have been because they got overeager at the end and had a costly collapse. And despite the bowlers stepping up to restrict England to what appeared to be a below-par total of 288, the batters threw away a winning hand.
Head coach Amol Muzumdar has said that he wants the team to start well, but finish better. It’s this crossing of the final hurdle that is holding the team back in the tournament.
“That’s perhaps one of the reasons why you see Australia churning out victories from difficult situations because they play as a team together for a long duration,” Raman pointed out. But India still control their destiny. Wins against New Zealand and Bangladesh at the DY Patil Stadium will take them to the semifinals.
“They should tell themselves that it’s a matter of having four good days or eight good sessions from here. If I were anywhere close to the dressing room, I would say, ‘whatever has happened has happened, we’ve taken a few calls which haven’t worked out well enough. But let’s get on with it, we’re still in with the chance’. After three losses, the only way is up.”
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