ICC WOMEN’S WORLD CUP, 2025
Mandhana reacts after being dismissed for 88 against England. © Getty
It was another tough day at the office for India, who suffered a narrow four-run defeat to England in Indore. None more so than for Smriti Mandhana who anchored major parts of the chase till the 42nd over with a flawless 88. Then, an attempted lofted-shot went awry and she holed out to long-off, a shot which she rued for the rest of the game and after the outcome was decided.
“I was trying to aim more over covers. I mistimed that shot,” Mandhana said. In a high-stakes clash, with semi-final spots on the line for both teams, Mandhana felt that the emotions got the better of her at the crucial stage. She even went on to take responsibility for the death-overs collapse after she felt her shot opened the gates for England. “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. But maybe the emotions took over for that one, which never helps in cricket
“Especially it [the collapse] started from me so I will take it on me that the shot selection should have been better. We just needed six per over. Maybe we should have taken the game deeper. So yeah I mean I’ll take it from myself because the collapse started from me.”
At the time when Mandhana lost her wicket, India still needed only 55 off 52 with six wickets in hand with Richa Ghosh and Deepti Sharma joining hands at the crease. Even while walking off after being dismissed, Mandhana was confident that India would seal the chase but the left-hander felt the choke at the death was once again down to poor shot selection.
“I think everyone’s shot selections at that time – we could have done better with our short selections…but walking back for sure, I mean, I was pretty confident that we’ll be able to get the win, but I mean, it’s cricket, you can’t ever think too ahead.”
Speaking on the clarity of predefined roles for each player within the Indian setup, Mandhana refused to pin the task of finishing entirely on Ghosh. With the run-rate under control as well for most parts of the game, the southpaw mentioned that even the lower-order could have completed the chase before calling for improvement in the death overs.
“I wouldn’t say that it’s only dependent on her [Richa Ghosh], we just needed 6.5 per over. It’s not like we needed 9 per over that the finishing part was a lot to ask but we’ve seen Aman [Amanjot Kaur] do that in WPL and Sneh [Sneh Rana] has been brilliant in the last 4-5 overs with a bat for us in the first 3-4 matches. We’ll all take it in like; we’ll take it on ourselves that we could have actually done better in the last six odd overs.”
Heading into the game, India made a interesting selection choice, dropping Jemimah Rodrigues to bring in Renuka Singh Thakur. Mandhana said it was down to increasing their bowling options after just five bowlers in their outings against Australia and South Africa proved to be costly. She also mentioned that it would not be the case in every game.
“In the last two matches for sure we thought that five bowling options are not good enough…we are not privileged enough to have our batters who could bowl few overs, which a lot of other teams can do that. So, yeah, for sure on a flatter track, we thought that five bowling options, especially if one bowler has a bad day, it really costs us a lot.
“It was definitely a very tough call to drop a player like Jemi. But yeah, 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 play their next game on Thursday (October 23), a crucial contest against New Zealand in Navi Mumbai with both teams fighting for the one remaining berth to the semi-finals. Mandhana called for taking those bad days in their stride and bringing out their best against New Zealand.
“In cricket, nothing comes easy. You don’t play cricket to have easy days. We’ll all take this in our strides. We all know where we could have gotten done better, where we went wrong. We all know all of those things and if you’re playing a sport, you’re meant to have good days and bad days. It’s about how you take those bad days and move on and see how we can get the best in terms of against New Zealand.”
© Cricbuzz
