Indian women’s team made a stellar turnaround in the ICC Women’s World Cup after burying West Indies by 155 runs on Saturday, 12 March. India were thoroughly dominant for the most part of the game, first dominating with the bat owing to twin centuries from Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur and then later coming back to defend their target.
They put on 317 runs in the first innings, the highest against West Indies in the World Cup, and made sure that it would be very difficult for the chasing side to try and bring down the total. Coming to defend, things did not go as planned for the Indian team after the Windies opening pair attacked their way out of trouble in the early phase of the game. Deandra Dottin and Hayley Matthews took attack to the opposition putting up 100 runs in a very quick time. Dottin and Mathews were very good in their approach against both spin and pace and attacked both forms of bowling with disdain.
They used their crease to perfection and attacked the spin bowlers to establish their domination on the crease. Dottin in particular stepped out of the crease and made a strong statement against the Indians that they had come to chase the target down.
Windies did very well in the first 10 overs, but it could have only lasted for so long considering the record chase that they had to make. The collapse did come, in the 13th over of the game. Dottin, trying to sweep Sneh Rana, lobbed up a ball and it got caught safely by Meghana Singh. Dottin looked visibly pissed off by the whole ordeal and walked off shaking her head in disdain.
Dottin’s wicket brought belief back in India after they were thrown around in the defence for the first 10 overs and they could finally apply the pressure that they needed to in the game. Once they got the breakthrough in the 13th over, India could actually put their mind back to the game. They did not waste the opportunity and struck back with six wickets in the next 50 runs to completely dismantle the Windies innings. Scoreboard pressure could not even come to play in the game as Windies lost wickets in a bunch and failed to score two-digit scores in six out of the remaining eight batters in the squad. Submitting to the Sneh Rana and Rajeshwari Gaikwad.
Their innings stretched on till the 41st over, but they could only score 162 runs before getting bundled out.
Earlier in the day, Indian changed their entire template and attacked from the word go, with Yastika Bhatitya setting the stage on fire. She scored 31 off 21 balls, setting the stage up for what could come later in the day. But in the wildest dreams of the Indian fans, one could not have dreamt on the partnership that came forth from two out of form batters in Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana. Kaur at least showed signs of returning into form, late in her lst innings, blasting her way through 71 off 63 balls. But Smriti’s accumulation of runs brought a breath of fresh air in Indian fans who now could certainly believe that they have two set batters in the three tight games that they would be playing in the World Cup.
While Smriti scored a stunning 123 off 119 balls, Harmanpreet made 109 off 1o7 and steered India to a huge total. The put India a position where they would not have lost the game and made sure that the women in Blue had a good footing in the World Cup.
Going into the tournament, India have tight competition in the next three games against England, Australia and South Africa, who are vying for the top four spots. However this game would help India in the NRR going into the tournament and provide them with big confidence in the remainder of the tournament.