Indian women’s cricket team lost the final
The performance of the Indian team in the Commonwealth Games held in Birmingham has been excellent, but the game that kept millions of fans tied and the team won its first medal in these games was cricket. Australia beat India by three wickets in the first match of the tournament. But after this the Indian team played with a new spirit and did not give any chance to the other teams.
In their second match, India defeated Pakistan in 18 overs. Just stopped for 99 runs. India achieved this target easily with eight wickets in which Smriti Mandhana’s quick 63 runs contributed significantly.
India also got an easy win against Barbados but defeating England further strengthened the team’s spirit to win the tournament. England’s big score of 160 was successfully chased by the team with 5 wickets in which once again Mandhana’s 61 and Rodrigues’s 44 runs played a big role.
The Indian women’s cricket team entered the finals, where they were defeated by Australia. In the final, it seemed that the Indian team was going ahead and they would win, but the experienced Australia got a chance and stopped India on the silver medal.
On this defeat of India, tears came out of many other people along with the team, but still, from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to former cricketers, these players were congratulated.
The PM tweeted that ‘Cricket and India cannot be separated. Our girls team played brilliantly throughout the tournament and won the silver medal.
At the same time, former players like Sourav Ganguly, Parthiv Patel and Irfan Pathan also praised the team fiercely. Actually this was a tournament where the Indian team did not win with the help of one or two star players, but all the players of the team definitely contributed somewhere.
Lack of discipline in the batting of the final match
In the final against Australia, India got a target of 162 runs. Shefali Verma hit a flurry of fours from the very first over, but somewhere this aggression engulfed the team. Mandhana got out playing a wrong shot.
India quickly lost two more wickets but captain Harmanpreet and Rodrigues took over the innings. Both scored 96 runs and when the partnership broke, the team had to score 44 runs in 34 balls and 7 wickets were in hand.
But India lost the wickets of Pooja Vastarkar and Harmanpreet in Gardner’s over and the team could not recover after that. Team India, which was capable of successfully chasing the score at one time, lost the match by 9 runs.
Former Indian cricketer Irfan Pathan also tweeted that he thought the match was in the hands of the Indian team which he lost, yet getting a silver medal is no small thing. Former captain Mohammad Azharuddin tweeted that the Indian team batted very poorly and lost the match they won.
Lose the match but win hearts
The Indian team lost the final match but people on social media praised the team a lot. Before the final, Indian team captain Harmanpreet had said that the future of Indian women’s cricket will change if the team wins the gold.
Although the team could not win the gold, but it is also a big lesson in the game that how to keep a hold on the match and the batsmen who are playing settled, it is their responsibility to win the match.
The players of the Indian team have shown that they are fast learners. Australia has proved that they are the number one team in the world by winning gold in ODI World Cup, 20-20 World Cup and now Commonwealth Games. The eyes of the Indian team are to bring down the kangaroos from this throne.
