Mithali Raj focuses on positives despite India's lacklustre showing
The World Twenty20 was built up beautifully for India Women to create a
splash. A record T20I series win in Australia and a creditable showing
in the ODIs that followed raised hopes of an improved show at their own
party. India hadn't qualified for the semi-finals since 2010, but were
primed to break the deadlock this time around. It looked like the team
had finally managed to reduce the burden on shoulders.
A whitewash of Sri Lanka Women at home in February ensured the engine
was revving up at the right time. Talks of a women's IPL were gathering
steam. Contracts meant they were no longer semi-professionals who turned
up at more camps than matches. Evolution of a core group of players
around Raj pointed to a giant party waiting to take off. Like at a
Formula One race, they overcame numerous challenges and change in
strategies to qualify on pole position. But an engine freeze as the
three lights went off resulted in their campaign going up in smoke in a
manner not many had seen coming.
Barring their tournament opener against Bangladesh, where they their highest-ever T20I score - they registered scores of 96, 90 and
111. Pitches weren't tailor made for batsmen to simply hit through the
line, but the manner in which a young batting line-up, that appeared to
have turned a corner in Australia, caved in was a matter of concern.
Against the spinners kept India alive by using the conditions as an ally. On
Sunday, while conditions helped them - although not to the extent it did
in Dharamsala - the bowlers were guilty of slipping into a
run-containing mode once the early damage was done. While they didn't
easily give away boundaries, Stafanie Taylor and Deandra Dottin rotated
the strike tactfully in a 77-run stand off just 71 balls to expose
India's fielding.
There were misfields, fumbles, throws that went wide. All that amounted
to India conceding at least 15 more than they should have. Even the
comeback towards the death - they picked up five wickets for 11 runs off
the last 14 balls - couldn't mask their fielding lapses, despite Anuja
Patil's catch, running in from long-on and then dishing in a full-length
dive to dismiss Taylor.
Although dejected, Raj chose to focus on the positives. "With this
performance, we aren't on par with them, but the girls have done very
well," she said. "It's a matter of pulling off one game that will give
them a lot of confidence, like we did in Australia. When it comes to
World Cup, there will always be pressure. The girls need to accept that
and work around it. Even in the 2013 World Cup, in a very important
match we somewhere lost the grip of it."
She was forthright in her assessment of where the team stood, but was
the first to put her hand up and say she had let the team down when it
mattered most. "Though I was among runs, I didn't quite score when the
team really looked up to me," she reflected on the scores of 16, 20 and 0
in her last three games. "This has not been the best of the tournaments
for me, but in the T20 format, you can't always be very consistent. Ups
and downs are a part of the format. In the last three games, the
batting unit was not coordinated.
We had those players who scored those 20s and 30s but we haven't got
somebody who could take the team along. Even those who hit form in a
particular day could not carry the team along. That's something we need
to work on. Though we could not make it to the semis, I am proud of the
way the girls have fought in the last three games and got the team back
into the game. There is always slip-up in the game, but with this
experience of having handled pressure, the girls will be able to do
better in the coming tournaments."
Over the course of the tournament, Raj has been repeatedly asked about
the surfaces dished out for the tournament. On a couple of occasions,
she even reasoned that the women's game needed a 150 v 150 contest, and
not 100 v 90 as has been the case this time around. On Sunday, questions
about the pitch resurfaced again, but this time around Raj wasn't in
the mood to use that as an excuse to mask their lacklustre batting.
Instead, she said the team would be better off training to become
fitter, and that the difference against West Indies Women was in the
agility of both sides. "In big events, it is very important to be
consistent in the departments where you are doing well," she said. "As a
fielding unit, we were inconsistent. When we thought we were squeezing
them for runs, we let down ourselves with slip-ups through boundaries.
Fitness is something we need to work on, especially in our fielding and
running between the wickets."
Jhulan Goswami's run-out with India needing 12 off nine balls
highlighted what Raj was trying to say. Having slogged the ball to wide
long-on, Goswami stuttered while turning for a second run, even as the
throw was fired towards the wicketkeeper's end. Two seconds of
indecision resulted in a terrible mix-up that left Goswami and India
high and dry. While it's impossible to say what could have been had
Goswami hared back for the second, that it was a huge moment in the
match was an understatement.
"As far as planning strategies go, the girls have to work really hard on
their fitness and running between the wickets. At crucial times, it is
important to know how to have composed mind. In that run out, had Jhulan
stood her end, we probably would have lost Shikha, but Jhulan was in
good flow. That is the biggest difference between good sides and very
good sides. We haven't been able to do that."
The end of India's tournament leaves them with little to look forward to
over the next two months. The absence of an FTP has somewhat been
covered up by the need to play the other seven Full Members in a series
of at least three ODIs to identify four direct qualifiers for the 2017
Women's World Cup.
With six wins in 15 matches, India are currently placed fifth, with
games against Pakistan, West Indies to come. "We are looking forward for
the one-day World Cup and again the work starts from the beginning,"
Raj said. The girls will take a lot of positives from this series and
try to implement them in the upcoming games heading into that
tournament."
