he Indian Women's Cricket Team-- 2017 World Cup Campaign

Couple of weeks back ,they were the Most Trending on all social media suddenly .  All for right reasons – Any sport that involves women probable has a lesser following than a sport where men are involved and if it was Cricket , it has to be Tendulkar’s ,  the Kapil Dev and Kohlis of the world that would attract attention from the elite down to the common man . Everyone will talk about them --

Who would bother about a Mithali Raj or a Harmanpreet Kaur ? Do the names ring a bell ? It did and  people did bother about Mithali and the team that played in the Women’s Cricket Cup. Suddenly the whole of India was following the Indian women’s  teams progress in the World cup . There was live coverage - Airports , restaurants and the like were showing the matches . Everyone was talking about them . There were several FB posts . All these augured well for the Women in action .

Was it unusual for a world cup to happen ? No , not at all . The Women’s world cup has been happening from 1973 !But what people saw in India was the opportunity  the Women’s team had – to repeat , what Kapil and his devils did in 1983 winning  the world cup for the first time. 

Australia , England have dominate this format ( 50overs )  in the women's format and no other team has won this tournament other than them.  So . it was time calling for an Indian win .

The team that went to England for the tournament had a good mixture of Youth and experience .  It had those youngsters who were very capable but lacked the experience of the big stage .The batting looked sound , bowling had experience and spinners looked good. It had an captain , who was not aggressive in getting wickets but would set a field to defend runs , create pressure and probably get the wickets they needed . It seemed to work well and the team shaped up so well in their first four matcheso

The first four matches made everyone sit up and watch the team. First they beat fancied hosts and eventual winners ( England ) in the opening match – rumbled past Pakistan ( cannot afford to lose this one be it any form of sport ) , West Indies and Srilanka and then their form hit a slide . They lost to Australia  and South Africa and that left them with a Must Win situation against New Zealand . It was a crunch match but everyone delivered and it was a ride in the park  type victory over NZ. That left them facing defending Champions Australia in the semis and  it was a tough task. 

It was with this match , I think  the fan following started for the team in truck loads –

Against the Aussies , Harmanpreet Kaur played probable one of her best innings of her career . She belted out an unbeaten 171 of 115 balls that put up a challenging total for Australia to chase . Kaur ‘s knock was exceptional – all of us knew that she was capable of the big hits – She tore the dreaded Aussie attack to pieces. And the Aussie team is not used to someone attacking their bowling , the way Harmanpreet did. They had been dominant in  this sport for a long time  and it was a shocker to see their bowlers belted around  – Once a big total was on board, the Aussies struggled and finally crumbled to a defeat.  But it was Harmanpreet Kaur all the way .

That left India facing England in the final and hopes soured high through the nation . In the final , England made a sub-par score and I thought the girls had it in their bag with some 37 runs to get with seven wickets in hand . But inexperience proved fatal .. The girls ended up losing by a narrow margin and missed lifting the World Cup—

1.      the future looks very good for the Women’s cricket – While Mithali the captain and Jhulan will retire in the near future, the rest of the team is very young and can carry the mantle.

2.      Some of them play fearless cricket, going for their shots, freshness in their approach  – Smruti Mandana ( she had a great start but faded away ) , Poonam Raut , Veda are all young and can go to win more matches for the team

3.      Harmanpreet Kaur is a star—Do not want to compare with anyone but she  stands apart in the team for her bold methods and she can  be a key person for the team for the next five years or so

4.      All these girls have come  up to the top , going through the grind as they say – Some travel 30 kms daily ( one way )  just to practice !. I was surprised myself with some of the stories , the struggle etc. Their stories will inspire many !

5.      They had adapted so well to playing conditions – Not easy to adapt to English conditions going from the sub-continent –

6.      They all bonded so well as a team –

7.      Making the right selection when someone was not doing well – Just proved that they had a good bench strength .

8.      Their entry to the final , will find more getting in to this sport ( every boy in India plays some form of cricket but this will soon catch with the girls as well )

9.      The BCCI has done a good job with the team selection and the support staff.
10   I see a IPL coming up for the Women's cricket ( A Lalit Modi lurking somewere )

I followed the team through all the matches including the ones they lost – I was hoping for a Win in the final but that did not happen . We can all say the Girls did the country proud  and watch out for these girls to emulate the men’s team soon !