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!

The world cup beckons Harmanpreet and her team … Give them your best shout out 

Comments

Anonymous said…
Great summary Sri. Albeit within rules, Mankading is controversy's favorite child... even visually. Like you said, can be argued both ways depending on which side we are.
12:16 AM
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