The decision to sit Mithali Raj out of the Women’s T20 semi-final proved to be disastrous for the women’s cricket team as they suffered an eight-wicket defeat to England on Friday.
Harmanpreet Kaur’s side made a small total of 112 runs and the bowlers failed to maintain the pressure on the opposition despite getting some early breakthroughs in the encounter.
“Whatever we decided, we decided for the team. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. But I’m really proud of the way girls played throughout the tournament,” said Captain Harmanpreet Kaur at the presentation ceremony.
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Indian spinner Radha Yadav gave England the first jolt in the form of opener Tammy Beaumont (1), who in her attempt for a slog sweep, was caught at mid-wicket by Arundhati Reddy. After adding 20 more runs to their total, England lost their other opener Danielle Wyatt at the personal score of eight, after she gave an easy catch to Jemimah Rodrigues in the deep midwicket.
Later, an unbreakable partnership between wicket-keeper Amy Jones (53*) and all-rounder Natalie Sciver (52*) not only left the Indian bowlers toiling hard for a wicket, but also drove their side to a convincing victory.
Earlier, batting first, India failed to put up a competitive total on the scoreboard as their in-form batters- Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur- could not come out with a match-defining knock like they did in the previous encounters.
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While Mandhana contributed 34 runs with her bat before getting caught and bowled to English bowler Sophie Ecclestone, Harmampreet Kaur could only score 16 runs for the Indian side.
Apart from Jemimah Rodrigues’ crucial contribution of 26 runs, no other Indian batter succeeded in going beyond 15 runs in the match.
For England, bowler Heather Knight emerged as the highest wicket-taker (3) followed by Kirstie Gordon (2) and Sophie Ecclestone (2)
Amy Jones was adjudged Player of the Match for making the maximum contribution, 53 runs, to her side’s total.
England will next take on Australia in the final of the ongoing prestigious tournament at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium on November 25.