Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], November 3 (ANI): It has been an unbelievable final 15 months for Indian cricket, as each males’s and girls’s groups have dropped at the nation era-defining and barrier-breaking triumphs within the ICC occasions, lastly having overcome the psychological barrier which prevented each side from capturing the gold for therefore a few years.
In these final 15 months, the boys’s nationwide crew ended their 11-year-long trophy drought, securing the ICC T20 World Cup final yr in June for the second time and following it up with the ICC Champions Trophy this yr in March on spin-friendly pitches of Dubai.
Minimize to November, now the ladies’s crew has additionally achieved its second of immortality, successful the 2025 ICC Ladies’s World Cup at dwelling in entrance of a packed DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday, overcoming a South African aspect powered by skipper Laura Wolvaardt, her fearsome quartet of all-rounders that includes Marizanne Kapp and Nadine de Klerk and a potent bowling assault.
Taking issues again to June, Crew India was battling immense psychological agony after a heartbreaking loss to Australia within the ICC Ladies’s World Cup last at dwelling after a dominant 10-match win streak which noticed data filling up each Indian fan’s hearts up with satisfaction, as stalwarts like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah confirmed prime kind. This pack of invincibles fell in their very own lure of gradual, spin pleasant pitch, as they misplaced a vital toss and surrendered to skipper Pat Cummins’s tactical brilliance, Australia’s fielders who threw our bodies round recklessly looking for leather-based and eventually a Travis Head counter-attack simply when India thought that their defence of a modest 240 runs was sorted after dismissal of Aussies’ big-match participant Steve Smith earlier than crew might even contact 50 runs because the third wicket.
Everybody discovered their very own villains to punch and criticise on social media as hundreds of thousands confronted a query: whether or not following the game was even price it, as, regardless of the person data and heroics, Crew India stored falling quick.
In June, Rohit-led India arrived within the USA and the West Indies for his or her T20 World Cup marketing campaign, with some recent faces like Shivam Dube, Arshdeep Singh and a returning Rishabh Pant being part of a new-look squad which had moved on from a number of gamers like KL Rahul and Mohammed Shami. A slender six-run win over arch-rivals Pakistan kickstarted the carnival for Crew India as Bumrah got here in clutch with a three-fer and essential Mohammed Rizwan wicket simply when it regarded Pakistan would chase down 120 simply.
One other excessive level of this marketing campaign was ‘Hitman’ Rohit butchering Australia and England mercilessly within the group stage and semifinals, respectively, with knocks of 41-ball 92 and a well-paced 57, respectively. The belting of premier Aussie pacer Mitchell Starc by Rohit for 29 runs, together with 4 sixes, felt like a launch of months-long trauma and anger, because the batter gave a satisfying grin after every hit. Then a spin takedown of England within the semifinals helped India avenge a 10-wicket battering at Adelaide in the course of the 2022 version.
Within the last, it was Virat’s bat which yielded 76 runs price its weight in gold, taking India to 176/7 in 20 overs. Until the title conflict, Virat the T20 World Cup batter, considered one of his most harmful personas, had didn’t stay as much as hype generated on the again of an Orange Cap successful IPL marketing campaign, which noticed him torch 741 runs at a strike price of over 154 with 38 sixes and silence any doubts about his T20I credentials in a contemporary age the place the urge for food for sixes and higher strike charges had put India’s largest T20I match-winner’s legacy beneath doubt. With South Africa cruising at one level with 30 wanted in 30, a pace-choke from Bumrah, Arshdeep, Hardik Pandya left Proteas simply seven runs in need of the title, with a exceptional catch at long-off from Suryakumar Yadav placing a lid on SA’s World Cup dream and quenching India’s thirst for a trophy which lasted 11 years.
As Rohit tasted the Barbados soil and stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Virat and a tricolour within the background, it made for an image that will go on to go viral on social media and maybe change into a wallpaper on loads of digital units. From then on, India transitioned from a well-calculated T20I unit to a go gung-ho from ball one regime beneath the captaincy of Surya, with Gautam Gambhir as his coach.
The vast majority of the ODI World Cup 2023 squad, nevertheless, confronted one other problem, one thing that might change into a short lived answer to India’s World Cup 2023-sized wound, the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. In spin-friendly circumstances of Dubai, Virat delivered the primary massive match efficiency, as soon as once more outclassing Pakistan in a run-chase, and a five-wicket haul by Varun Chakravarthy dismantled New Zealand within the group phases.
Within the semifinals, Virat’s bat as soon as once more delivered a cultured 84 in opposition to Australia, persevering with his knockout stage scorching streak, and KL delivered an aggressive 42* to chase down a aggressive 265 runs. KL’s animated, aggressive celebration marked a cathartic second for him, simply months after a sluggish 66 in 107 balls in the course of the WC last at Ahmedabad in opposition to the identical opposition which had made him a nationwide punching bag.
Within the title conflict in opposition to New Zealand, skipper ‘Hitman’ delivered his first ICC knockout stage half-century, a match-winning, ‘Participant of the Match’ efficiency of 76 in chasing down 252 runs. Whereas Rohit and Virat stood tall as traditional, with essentially the most highlight and cameras on them, the second additionally marked a crowning jewel of India’s middle-order workhorses, Shreyas Iyer (243 runs in 5 innings with two fifties) and KL Rahul, who gained his redemption carrying the brand new ‘finisher’ avatar, scoring 140 runs in 4 innings at a mean of 140.00.
India had secured two ICC males’s titles in 9 months. When the Ladies’s World Cup got here to India, all eyes have been on the ladies’s crew, who had fallen in need of the trophy twice, having made it to the finals in 2005 and 2017. With India’s shocker of a collapse from 191/3 to 219 all out whereas chasing 229 in opposition to England at Lord’s eight years again recent within the minds of many, there have been a number of doubts, even within the dwelling benefit, if Harmanpreet Kaur-led India would cross the ultimate barrier and ship the ‘1983 second’ of its personal to girls’s cricket.
Issues began easily for India with wins over Asian rivals Sri Lanka and Pakistan, groups nowhere competing in opposition to non-Asian girls’s groups. Nonetheless, three successive losses to South Africa, Australia and England from dominant positions appeared to show that doubts have been, in a manner, effectively positioned.
Towards South Africa, India fumbled a defence of 252 runs from a successful place of 211/7, permitting Nadine de Klerk to take down an inexperienced pacer, Kranti Gaud, along with her power-hitting and scoring 54-ball 84* because the goal was chased down with three wickets and 7 balls left. Towards the Aussies, Indian bowling fell flat whereas defending a document 331 in opposition to Australia, as Alyssa Healy raged in the direction of an prompt traditional 107-ball 142, serving to Australia make mild work out of what turned out to be essentially the most profitable Ladies’s ODI run-chase.
The England loss regarded like a killer blow to the morale of Crew India and followers, as Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana and Deepti Sharma, three of India’s most skilled campaigners, laid down the platform for a simple 289-run chase. India wanted 42 runs within the last 36 balls with six wickets in hand, however a collective lower-middle-order brainfade led to nothingness and surprised faces of Indian followers and gamers as they fell simply 4 runs quick.
A dominant win over New Zealand, with centuries from Mandhana and Pratika Rawal and a washout in opposition to Bangladesh pushed India into the semifinals. However then, an damage to Rawal, at this level India’s second-best batter and simply essentially the most dependable one, sustained an damage which dominated her out of the competitors. She was changed by a extra explosive Shafali Verma, who had been away from ODIs for an yr and lacked consistency and rhythm required for the large semifinal in opposition to Australia.
In the course of the semifinals, India did get a ‘Deja Vu’ as after Travis Head, one other left-hander, Phoebe Litchfield, unleashed a brutal century on Crew India, gorgeous the house crowd whereas fifties from Ellyse Perry and Ash Gardner took the Aussies to 338. India was decreased to 59/2, with Mandhana-Shafali pair failing to construct one thing of substance. Nonetheless, with a record-breaking 167-run stand between skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues, who each had an inconsistent event, introduced the winds of change within the dressing room. Each batters unleashed a calculated assault on the Aussies. Whereas Harman fell 11-short of a WC semifinal ton, Rodrigues stayed until the tip unbeaten at 127*, helped by cameos from Richa Ghosh (26 in 16 balls, with two fours and two sixes) and Amanjot Kaur (15* in eight balls) to the highest-ever Ladies’s ODI run-chase and the all-time run-chase in a 50-over WC knockout match throughout males’s and girls’s occasions.
Self-belief was excessive as India took to DY Patil Stadium for the ultimate, with their coach Amol Muzumdar urging the crew to ‘minimize down on exterior noise and stay in their very own bubble for seven hours’, regardless that SA skipper Laura Wolvaardt had pulled off a ‘Pat Cummins second’, suggesting that she wish to silence the Indian crowd. This quote, mixed with South Africa successful the toss, introduced again the recollections of the Ahmedabad heartbreak.
Shafali delivered the ‘God’s Plan’ when it was wanted essentially the most, with a 78-ball 87, whereas knocks from Deepti Sharma (58 in 58 balls, with three fours and a six) and Richa Ghosh (34 in 24 balls, with three fours and two sixes) took India to 298/7.
Proteas wanted to tug of a record-breaking best-ever run-chase throughout males’s and girls’s WC finals to seize their maiden world title in maiden 50-over last look in girls’s sport. Skipper Laura Wolvaardt (101 in 98 balls, with 11 fours and two sixes) stored the crew afloat, however game-changing spells from Shafali Verma (2/36) and Deepti Sharma (5/39) outclassed the Proteas’ explosive all-rounders. On the stroke of midnight, Harmanpreet fittingly took the successful catch of the batter who had began India’s troubles, Nadine, giving Deepti a double of half-century and five-wicket haul within the last and a first-ever double of 200-plus runs and 20 wickets throughout a single version of males’s and girls’s 50-over WC by a participant.
As Crew India celebrated, a brand new period of girls’s cricket had began, from the place ladies might dream of changing into the subsequent Deepti, Shafali, Smriti, Harmanpreet and Kranti Gaud identical to Kapil Dev’s males had flipped the world cricket’s energy centre with WC win in 1983 win and made boys dream about choosing up a bat and ball to change into the subsequent Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Madan Lal, Mohinder Amarnath simply to call a number of. Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami and Anjum Chopra, current as broadcasters and as soon as flag-bearers of India’s Ladies’s WC dream when it didn’t maintain the modern-day flamboyance, hard-hitting gameplay and energy, celebrated with the crew and shared the trophy, which was in some ways belonged to them as effectively.
Smiles and tears got here from India’s overjoyed camps in equal measures, as a number of tales acquired a fairytale ending. As soon as sidelined, Shafali didn’t concern being thrown within the deep finish and got here out with a ‘Participant of the Match’ title. Deepti, who was the final recognised batter dismissed when India wanted 11 in 12 balls whereas battling that shocker of a collapse at Lords’ eight years again, delivered an all-round, ‘Participant of the Match’ marketing campaign much like Yuvraj Singh’s again in 2011. She had justified her head coach’s comparability to England’s star all-rounder Ben Stokes. Additionally, Amol Muzumdar, who by no means obtained to play for India regardless of his exceptional home cricket stats and wealthy Mumbai cricket pedigree with Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid round throughout his enjoying days, was chosen by future to guide the ladies’s crew to a trailblazing Ladies’s World Cup title.
These 15 months have been cathartic and game-changing for Indian cricket. Whereas wounds from the previous healed one event at a time, it has additionally sparked hope for a good brighter future, the place there could be no such factor as a ‘trophy drought’ or an abroad captain threatening to ‘silence the Indian crowd’. (ANI)
