BATTING COLLAPSE COSTS INDIA CRICKET GOLD
THE Indian women’s cricket captain Harmanpreet Kaur has called on her team to stop repeating the same mistakes in “title clashes”, saying the “mental block” has to be broken.
India came close to winning the gold as women’s cricket made its Commonwealth Games (CWG) debut, but fell short by nine runs after being in a dominant position against favourites Australia.
It was deja vu for the Indian women, who had suffered similar batting collapses during their T20 World Cup finals defeat against Australia in 2020, and the 2017 ODI World Cup final in England.
“Every time in big finals, we make the same mistakes again and again (with the bat),” Kaur said after the match last Sunday (7).
“We don’t do these mistakes in the league phase or in bilaterals. That is blocking our mind somewhere,” she added.
With 50 needed off the last six overs with eight wickets in hand, India seemed to be on course to title triumph, but lost their last five wickets for 13 runs.
Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues put together a 96run partnership, but both were out in quick succession playing poor shots.
“I am always looking for one more batter in the side. Unfortunately, we’re working on that. Once we get that, this thing [collapsing] will go away,” Kaur said. “After losing two crucial wickets, the way Jemi (Rodrigues) and I batted was much needed at that time. You need to hold your nerves. We were nearly there.
“Maybe if Pooja (Vastrakar) or I were around, we could have won the game. But that is part of the game – sometimes some things you can’t control. It is great learning for us.”
Although India ended on the losing side in the summit clash, Kaur said she was “happy and satisfied” with her side’s CWG campaign. “I know we were close to winning gold, but all around our performance was great. We’re happy to have won a silver medal. As a team, we want to inspire young girls. Doing well on this platform will motivate a lot of people back home.”
India put up a spirited fielding display that helped them restrict Australia to 161 for 8. “If you want to beat this Australian team, you have to field well. If you give them easy runs, they can easily take the game away. We discussed it in the team meeting and Radha (Yadav) set the example for us,” Kaur said.
“The effort we put up today is something we wanted to do. I know the last two-three overs [in the chase] were not in our favour, but throughout the game, the way we played was outstanding to watch,” she added.