Captain Harmanpreet Kaur blamed India Women batters’ inability to make use of the death overs as the actual reason behind their defeat to Australia Women in Sunday’s clash in Visakhapatnam. Despite being in a position of command at 294/4 in 42.5 overs, India lost their remaining six wickets for only 36 runs in the next six overs.
The batters ought to have finished it better, agreed. But wasn’t a total of 330 good enough for their bowlers to defend? Australia won with an over to spare.
The Indian bowlers were under pressure from the beginning of the Australian chase as Alyssa Healy stomped her authority on them. The bowlers did make things a bit tricky for the Aussies in the last few overs of the game, but it’s the first 40 overs of the Australian innings where the Indian bowlers faltered.
Not just against Australia, but even in the previous game, versus South Africa, India failed to defend 252 despite having the situation under control on a slow track at the same venue.
South Africa were six down for 142 in the 36th over, but the Indian bowlers couldn’t get the better of the opponents’ No.8 batter Nadine de Klerk, who took the game away with an unbeaten 84 off 54 balls.
“This Indian bowling group has no death-overs specialist. Yes, the young spinner (Shree Charani) is doing a decent job, but her senior spin colleague Sneh Rana has been extremely disappointing lately. Yet, she continues to be in the XI,” former national selector Lopamudra Banerjee pointed out.
“Also, the young medium-pacer Kranti Gaud doesn’t seem to be ready for this level,” Banerjee added.
Mithu Mukherjee, another former national selector, also acknowledged India’s pace attack being their weak link.
“This girl (Kranti) bowled like a novice. She’s just not ready for this level, while Amanjot Kaur is more of an all-rounder and is basically a one-change bowler. Not a single pacer has come up after Jhulan (Goswami),” Mukherjee remarked.
To keep their semi-final hopes alive, India now need to beat both England (coming Sunday) and New Zealand (on October 23), which won’t be an easy task either. “Going forward, what India can do is bring in left-arm spinner Radha Yadav in place of one of the medium-pacers,” Mukherjee advised.
“To address this bowling conundrum, we need regular camps for both quicks and spinners. That way you can develop bowlers,” Banerjee said.