India vice-captain Smriti Mandhana accepted responsibility for the team’s devastating four-run defeat to England in their Women’s World Cup match, acknowledging that their shot selection “could have been better” and that her dismissal was the catalyst for the batting collapse.
With opener Mandhana (88) forming two vital partnerships—125 with captain Harmanpreet Kaur and 67 with Deepti Sharma—and leading the chase, India seemed to be well on track to chase their target of 289.
However, Richa Ghosh hit a straight one to cover after her misplaced lofted ball to long-off opened the floodgates, and Deepti then miscued a slog, causing India to lose vital wickets and fall painfully short of their target.
“I think everyone’s shot selections at that time… we could have done better with our shot selections. Especially it started from me, so I will take it on me, that the shot selection should have been better,” Mandhana said at the post-match press conference on Sunday.
“We just needed six (runs) per over. Maybe we should have taken the game deeper. I’ll take it on myself because the collapse started from me.”
The left-hander claimed that she strayed from her usual strategy of avoiding overhead strokes because her emotions overcame her.
“I thought I could take her on. I was trying to aim more over covers. I mistimed that shot. Maybe the shot wasn’t needed at that time. I just needed to be more patient because, throughout the innings, I was trying to tell myself to be patient and not to play aerial shots.
“Maybe the emotions took over for that one, which never helps in cricket. But, walking back, I was pretty confident that we’ll be able to get the win, but it’s cricket, you can’t ever think too ahead.”
The collapse was comparable to India’s performance against Australia in the previous match, as the middle and lower order batters collapsed after the top order gave a strong platform.
Mandhana did, however, defend the batting unit saying that finishing is never an easy match.
“If you see England’s innings, they did not finish well as well. Going in and trying to get seven (runs) per over is not an easy thing. So, I wouldn’t say that they haven’t… and I just feel that in the first two or three matches we definitely finished well.
“Against South Africa we had a last 10 overs we got almost 90 plus runs so they have pretty much done a lot of good things. It’s all about how we experienced players can put our hands up in those sort of situations and be there and guide the younger group.”
In order to bolster the bowling assault against England, the team management decided to substitute pacer Renuka Singh for batter Jemimah Rodrigues after sticking with a five-bowler combination in their opening four games.
“In the last two matches for sure we thought that five bowling options are not good enough, especially on a flat track like Indore, or how maybe the Vishakhapatnam second match played.
“We don’t, we are not privileged enough to have our batters who could bowl few overs, which a lot of other teams can do. So we thought that five bowling options, especially if one bowler has a bad day, it really costs us a lot.
“It was a very tough call to drop a player like Jemi. But, sometimes, you need to do those sort of things in terms of getting the balance right. But yeah, again, it’s not like this is going to be there – we’ll have to see how the situation is, how the wicket will play and then we’ll take a call.”
India’s prospects of making it to the semifinals were in jeopardy after their third consecutive loss in the tournament. To remain in the running, they must now win their final two games.
