Indian Women's Team thread ....

[Bhavesh Manglani]

I am in support of the Indian Women's Cricket team. My personal Favriouite players are Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami.

[prasen9]

Frankly all the platitudes about growing and learning from the mistakes, and doing better next time, are utter rubbish. THIS IS the big time. The same thing was said after we narrowly lost the ODI World Cup for women in 2017 by just nine runs to England -- having beaten them in the first match of the tournament (eerily reminiscent of this tournament, except that the loss in the final was more emphatic).

I think the mental aspect of the team will improve. Right now, they seem to not have the confidence in the big game against England or Australia (the big teams). Our men's team at a point was losing to Pakistan all the time at one point especially in Sharjah. We stopped playing them. And, we were losing chasing and choking. That improved with experience.

[PKBasu]

India's women's team is playing a one-off test in England, starting on Wednesday (16 June). In the past 10 years, India have played just 2 women's tests, and won both. In the past 20 years, the record is 10 tests, 4 wins, 1 loss. Ludicrously few tests being played by the women in a format they are rather good at. It is silly that they are playing just one test this time too.

[prasen9]

How about the 17 year old Shafali Verma?

[PKBasu]

One helluva talent. She is the Viru of the women’s team, especially in tests (which are played too infrequently). That she is barely 17 is very exciting for the future.

[PKBasu]

The Indian women ended Australia's 26-ODI winning streak with a terrific victory today -- it was the biggest successful run-chase for India Women ever, and the second-highest ever run chase against Australia Women. In the previous match, too, India had almost won -- but a seeming victory was negated when the final ball was declared a no-ball by the 3rd umpire, and Australia then scored 2 runs off the next ball (the last ball, re-bowled). Jhulan Goswami (who conceded that no-ball, ruled above the waist) was Woman of the Match in today's victory.

[PKBasu]

These two scorecards will probably become iconic of an emerging rivalry at the top of women's cricket between Australia and India -- akin to what exists among the men from the two countries.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/ind ... -scorecard
Australia won this only after a last-ball victory for India was over-turned by the 3rd umpire controversially ruling that the last ball was a no-ball (being above waist-height). It was a marginal call at best.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/ind ... -scorecard
India recompensed with a solid victory (with 3 balls to spare) in the final match

Now the teams will play a one-off test match.

[PKBasu]

Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami are two of the greatest cricketers in the history of women's cricket. Mithali is the highest run-aggregator (with a Kohli-esque batting average of 51+) in ODI's, with 20% more runs than the second-highest scorer in the history of the game:

https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/conte ... 84264.html

And Jhulan Goswami is similarly the highest wicket-taker in the history of women's ODI cricket, with 33.3% more wickets than the second highest wicket-taker in the game's history (and she has a Bumrah-esque bowling average too):
https://stats.espncricinfo.com/wi/conte ... 83976.html

We really should be celebrating these remarkable veterans and continuing achievers of women's cricket.

[SaniaFan]

Mithali is surely one of the greatest. But this series was about our new generation who are fearless cricketers. Yastika Bhatia, Richa Ghosh, Smriti Mandana in batting. I was really impressed with Pooja Vastrakar's bowling because I think she is the first fast bowler in india who bowls aggressively. I think In 5 years this new generation of women cricketers will dominate the world.
Jhulan goswami is brilliant in terms of attitude. She is fearless. She bowled that final over in the second ODi and it must have been heart breaking to see lose that game after winning(I think it was atrocious decision) it in previous ball. And again she was there when were chasing the highest score ever chased successfully by India and scored the winning four in the last over. It was simply brilliant.
But both Mithali and Jhulan will have to make way for the new generation very soon.

[PKBasu]

Yes, agree, the real story of the women's team over the past 2-3 years has been the youngsters -- but Mithali and Jhulan provide solidity and leadership. Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Varma and Ruchi Ghosh (both still just 17), Yastika Bhatia (21 years old) provide the nucleus of a terrific team for the next 10-15 years. It is really quite exciting to contemplate, but women's cricket in India is not yet on a sound financial footing.
It is ludicrous that Mithali and Jhulan (who are both 38) have played just 11 tests, far fewer than Shanta Rangaswamy, Diana Edulji, etc. played in a different era.

[SaniaFan]

I think now it is getting really better. Smriti and deepika sharma are going to play in australian equivalent of IPL(for women) which is very competitive. Also their training has improved tremendously. Players like Jennifer, Pooja are extremely fit. Jennifer is an excellent fielder, which is one area where we are behind western teams. But I expect this to change in next 5 years.

Test cricket for women has been suffering in general since cricket has become more commercialized. I am not sure that would improve any time soon.

[prasen9]

Why does our league only have 3 teams? Australia has 8 teams and have been running the leagues for what 14 years compared to our 4? BCCI just does lip-service. How about marketing the women's game and trying to advertise more, invest more at the beginning, etc.?

[SaniaFan]

I don't think it is lip service but BCCI puts its commercial interest on top. It would not enter a loss making venture. Change takes time. Like in last women's IPL even with three teams one of the teams was very bad. I don't think we have the base. It is increasing but it will take some time. I think there already talks about having 5-6 teams in future. Let's see.

[SaniaFan]

BTW, in above messages. Jennifer should read as Jemimah and deepika as Deepti. Some issues with auto correct, some with my mind.

[jaydeep]

In day-night pink test, our women are 276/5 ... Smriti Mandhana becomes the first Indian woman batter to score a century in Australia ... Beautiful tweet by Harleen Kaur Deol.