‘Agar all-out kardete to acha hote’ – Fans distraught as India suffer its first defeat in the Women’s 20-20 World Cup 2023

India and England locked horns in Group Two of the ongoing Women’s 20-20 World Cup 2023 at St George’s Park, Gqeberha. Ahead of the game both teams were unbeaten and were topping the table. Meanwhile, in the game, the Women In Blue won the toss and elected to bowl first. The decision was proved right as the 2009 winners, England lost three wickets for 29 runs in 4.4 overs. 

All three wickets were picked by Renuka Singh Thakur inside the powerplay. At 29/3, the likes of Nat Sciver-Brunt and skipper Heather Knight put together 51 runs for the fourth wicket. The partnership was broken with a loose full-toss by Shikha Pandey to Knight. The latter ended up hitting the ball straight to extra cover. Meanwhile, Amy Jones came in and scored 40 off 27 balls to take the team to 151/7.

In the last over, Thakur picked up her five-wicket haul as she picked up two more wickets.

Indifferent batting led to India’s first loss of the tournament in the Women’s 20-20 World Cup 2023

In reply, the 2020 finalists had a mixed start as vice-captain Smriti Mandhana hit a few boundaries while Shafali Varma struggled. The latter got out on the last ball of the fourth over. She could only score eight off 11 balls. The likes of Jemimah Rodrigues and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur failed to deliver as well. On the other hand, Mandhana scored a fifty but got out right after it.

In the end wicketkeeper batter, Richa Ghosh scored an unbeaten 47 runs but failed to take the team home. With India not being able to keep up with the required run rate, they fell short by 11 runs.

After the game, India skipper Kaur said “We started really well but in the middle over, we didn’t bowl according to plan and lost the momentum. In batting we were doing well but unfortunately weren’t able to get the run rate needed. Whenever Renuka is bowling, we are looking for wickets. She enjoys bowling. We were speaking about DLS also but wanted to go with the rhythm. In between when rain came, we were 10-12 runs behind but we knew with Mandhana and Ghosh, we would cover that. Sometimes when you are behind, you have to take charge, which is where we lost Jemi and my wicket.”

On the other hand, England skipper Knight said  “We talk about batting as per conditions and Nat and I did that. Amy was fantastic and it’s good to see that our batting group showed character even after 29 for 3. THakur at front was outstanding, moving the ball both ways is tough. You want the boundaries but you have to take ones and twos and that manipulated the field for us. We haven’t really played against a big team recently and to play like this against this Indian team was fantastic. Ecclestone and Glenn varied pace brilliantly. [Fielding] Our ground fielding was the best we did in the competition. Need to take catches and can’t drop players like Mandhana.”

This is how Twitter reacted

https://twitter.com/imfemalecricket/status/1626978050696151041?s=20

https://twitter.com/DelhiCapitals/status/1626978554608259075?s=20

https://twitter.com/thebharatarmy/status/1626979117748097024?s=20

https://twitter.com/WarwickshireCCC/status/1626979351794262016?s=20

.@13richaghosh gave a valiant fight but the Indian team eventually fell short by 11 runs. #EngvInd #T20WorldCup pic.twitter.com/kGXfhP4UY1

— 100MB (@100MasterBlastr) February 18, 2023

https://twitter.com/gujarat_titans/status/1626956598819295232?s=20

https://twitter.com/englandcricket/status/1626979863524409351?s=20

https://twitter.com/SunRisers/status/1626982627092877313?s=20

IND's approach, despite not losing early wickets,was same as ENG's, who lost three early wickets, is probably what the difference of the match!!#ENGvIND#T20WorldCup2023

— Srikanth (@G_Srikanth24) February 18, 2023

https://twitter.com/Anubhavshahi48/status/1626984996711043073?s=20