Indian Women Cricket Team win 3-0 over England And Make Jhulan s farewell a Celebration
All that the English media and team players can talk about is that run out dismissal – They found an excuse for the loss, not in that match alone but the series…. Fact of the matter was that Indian Women beat England in their den hollow – Not an easy task considering conditions and playing away from home. England did miss their regular players due to injury and other reasons but one cannot take away the fact that India played extremely well to achieve this result. In the first two ODI s, India just outplayed England. First Smiriti Mandhana ran away with the chase in the first ODI with support from skipper Harmanpreet who was in dazzling form. In the second ODI, Harmanpreet just nailed the match with an outstanding 143 not out and England lost the chase. And the series was won by India. The third and final ODI was just an another match .But with the veteran Jhulan Goswami retiring in this match , the girls wanted to ensure it was won … And they did win it for Jhulan
Jhulan Goswami :
What a heroine she was… To stay in top flight competition for twenty
years as a fast Bowler is not easy.. She and Mithali Raj took on stellar
leadership roles to create a lot of first for the Women s team.- So many Firsts ! A first Test Series win over England in
2006-07—.And leading ( I say leading because these will be broken or overhauled
)-
Most wickets in Women’s internationals ,
Most wickets in Women s ODI
And Most wickets in Women s
world Cups . Jhulan also lead the Indian team from 2008 to 2011
And even in her final match playing at the age
of 39 , she was sharp and nippy … If the Women’s team is getting their due
attention everywhere , it is because of players like Jhulan who have carried on
gamely in testing environment and showed the world what they can do and have been
able to create such a fan following for themselves. As they say they have let
their game do the talking. It is very good news to know that Jhulan will
continue with the team as their Bowling Coach and this will be very good for
the budding young fast bowlers who are coming up. There is Megna Singh , Renuka
Singh and others who will immensely benefit from Jhulan s coaching stint and
also this will help the transition without Jhulan as a player
India s win in the series was
largely due to the following :
Aggressive brand of cricket
Fearless cricket – In fact
the opposition fears our batters—Shefali Verma , Smiriti , Harmanpreet , Deepti
are very formidable players
Harmanpreet back in form
Fielding – Excellent improvement
in ground fielding and catching
Harmanpreet s captaincy
Winning the toss 😊
Everyone chipping in
And finally ,Lack of some
English top stars ( although not a big reason ,it is a reason )
The Noise
The final ODI was won by a run
out.. India was in the Drivers seat with nearly 50 plus runs needed and England
s last pair in the middle. However , they did not give up .Playing with
smartness , they got the target down to
16. It was then Deepti Sharma , the
bowler on her run up to bowl , found Charlie Dean backing up too far, held her
stride and smartly took the bails off..
It was stunning end but it was all fair and as per rules. This method of
getting out is always viewed to be unfair or not playing in the true spirit of
the game. But it is legitimate.. I liked the way Harmanpreet responded to
questions at the post match conference. When the question was asked on how she
felt about the dismissal. Harmanpreet responded with a view on how India played
the match.. The interviewer then went blunt and asked Harmanpreet, that she did
not respond to his question on the run out. Harmanpreet responded -- we took 10
wickets and all of them were difficult
and including the last one and
went on to say , it was as per rules and the bowler had done nothing wrong and
had her backing. End of story.
The British media and players
can keep talking about this --- The fact is you were beaten and this run out
alone was not the reason for your series defeat. I am sure if the reverse had happened –
meaning if England had run out an Indian
Player in the same manner , they would be pointing out as to how fair their
team had been in following rules etc Blah Blah.
The scorecard will reflects
Charlie Dean run out Deepti Sharma and that is what is going to stay forever!
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