The epic final of the T20 cricket at the Commonwealth Games 2022 (CWG 2022) was nothing short of a complete shock for India, as the team faced a defeat against Australia from a comfortable winning position at Edgbaston.
To begin with, the Australian skipper Meg Lanning chose to bat after the toss was delayed due to discussions about Australia all-rounder Tahlia McGrath’s inclusion in the XI despite testing positive for Covid-19.
In the second innings, while chasing 162, captain Harmanpreet Kaur‘s (65) marvellous knock went in vain as India fell short of the target. Along with her, Jemimah Rodrigues (33) was looking good, but it was her wicket that led to the batting lineup’s eventual downfall.
India seemed to be on track for a decisive win when they were 118-2 in the 15th over, but a flurry of wickets decelerated their charge. They still managed to find boundaries to stay in the game, reaching the final over with 11 runs to go and two wickets in hand. However, Meghna Singh was run out on the second ball, and Yastika Bhatia was lbw on the next ball. As a result, the Indian women were forced to settle for silver in their first CWG cricket campaign.
This victory at the CWG 2022 underlines the dominance of the Australian women’s team, who are also world champions of the 20-over and 50-over formats.
The Indian fans, who showed up in a massive amount at Edgbaston, might have had the deja vu of the 2017 Women’s World Cup final between India and England when the Women in Blue were defeated by the hosts by nine runs at Lord’s.
Apart from the defeat in the final, the Indian cricket team was a dominant outfit in the entire tournament and managing to secure the silver medal will encourage the fans to lay their support for the team in such multi-sporting events. Team India is improving, and given the recent performances, a significant achievement for the women’s team is just around the corner.