News Analysis
India’s Women find themselves one defeat from an early World Cup exit after a match they ought to have closed out in Indore slipped through their fingers. Chasing 289, they required 57 from 57 balls with seven wickets intact and two set batters in. Most sides would convert that position nine times out of ten; Sunday was the unlucky tenth.
Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur had already hauled the chase from a wobbly 42 for 2 to 167 for 3, their 125-run partnership arriving in just 122 deliveries. England, until this game the competition’s most frugal attack between overs 11 and 30, were milked for 6.05 an over in that very phase. The platform looked sturdy.
Earlier, Deepti Sharma’s canny spell – backed up by Renuka Singh, recalled as an extra seamer – restricted England to 288 when a total beyond 320 had seemed likely. It felt like the sort of balanced performance India had been hunting for since the tournament began.
Then the familiar crack appeared.
England’s twin left-arm spinners, so often India’s nemesis of late, had been held at bay for 41 overs. In the 42nd, Linsey Smith drifted one across Mandhana from around the wicket. The field was spread: square leg, mid-wicket, long-on and long-off patrolling, extra-cover temptingly open. Mandhana, patient until then, chased the gap, miscued, and was caught at long-off. The run-rate was still manageable; the mood was not.
“Smriti’s wicket was a turning point for us, but we still had many batters,” Harmanpreet said afterwards. The captain’s optimism was justified on paper – Deepti, Richa Ghosh, Amanjot Kaur and Sneh Rana remained – yet the middle-order freeze that has haunted India across formats resurfaced. England sensed it immediately, tightened lines, and India unravelled for a four-run defeat.
Three losses on the trot tell a story. Against South Africa the top order misfired, the tail rescued them, the bowlers could not defend. Versus Australia the frontline batters did the job, the lower order folded, the bowlers lost their nerve. Against England both departments clicked for most of the day before an all-too-familiar hesitancy crept in at the decisive moment.
Why does it keep happening? A former national selector, speaking privately, points to India’s batting composition: “Too many stroke-makers, not enough firefighters. Once pressure builds, there’s no one whose first instinct is to bat time.” The decision to drop Jemimah Rodrigues for an extra bowler underlines the point – depth sacrificed for options with the ball.
There were, however, genuine positives. Harmanpreet, scratchy until now, produced her most fluent knock of the tournament, punching gaps square of the wicket and using her feet to the spinners. Mandhana’s slow start – 18 balls faced in the first 12 overs – morphed into a measured assault, the loft over extra-cover her release shot whenever width arrived. And Deepti’s control through the middle overs remains India’s most reliable thread.
Yet tournaments are unforgiving. Two group matches remain, both effectively must-win. Win them and India probably squeak into the semi-finals; drop one and the hosts will watch the knockout stages from the stands. The equation is stark, but not insurmountable.
Technically, the batting fix is straightforward: clearer plans against left-arm spin, especially late in the chase. Mentally, it is harder. The side carries scars from similar collapses in the 2022 Commonwealth Games final and last year’s Asia Cup. Confidence ebbs faster than it can be restored.
England, for their part, deserve credit for persistence. They kept faith with their slower options and trusted the big boundaries square of the wicket. Heather Knight’s field-placings after Mandhana’s dismissal – a second ring fielder at cover, long-off pushed straighter – strangled easy singles and forced risk. It was smart, unspectacular cricket, precisely what most tournaments reward.
Where, then, does this leave India? Still alive, still talented, still capable of brilliance, but balanced on a knife-edge. The wall outside Indore’s press box will be rebuilt soon enough. Whether India can patch up their own cracks in time is the question that now defines their World Cup.
