Women`s World T20: Indian team is a mix of men`s 90s team and current aggressors

The ICC Women World T20...Come on, I am not a die hard cricket fan…but I do love fights for victory. When the ICC came up with the announcement that this year the Women`s T20 world cup would be live telecasted, it was a welcome change. In the Indian team I always heard Anjum chopra, Jhulan Goswami and Mithali Raj. No telecasts in the past meant that I never got the chance to see them in the action when I used to follow cricket.

The start of the T20 world cup and I watched the ladies matches, with Anjum chopra now retired it was a chance to see Mithali and Jhulan, the known names in action and I must say that the Indian team reminds me of the nervous men`s team from the 1990s and the fiery aggressive team under Ganguly and Dhoni. With the matches being held alongside the male counterparts, it must have been a change for the women to see public in the stands cheering them up. It doesn’t matter whether majority of the public are eager schoolchildren cheering them on or the general public. I have watched all 3 matches – Bangladesh, Pakistan, England. The ladies are playing just like the yesteryears men`s team used to play in the sachin era – if he blasted from the start the team mounted a mt. everest of runs or crumbled. This is where the difference comes up now. In the opener against Bangladesh they went on a blitzkrieg attack on the Bangladeshis hammering 160+ score with Mithali and Vanitha on the attack from the very start hammering boundaries and the lower order joining in the party to post their highest ever total. They kind of pulverized Bangladesh just like the men used to do it earlier. The first glimpse of the mixed team from 2 different eras came to be seen in the match against Pakistan. 

Earlier the men used to be buried under expectations and pressure of the big game and used to crumble under pressure. Maybe the ladies too got under the same situation when they scored at even less than a test match runrate. At some stages it was 1.5-2. I cant say how was the pitch ( I have no knowledge) but when Harmanpreet and Veda was clocking down some useful boundaries I could hear the crowd cheering , “Veda, Veda”. They wanted a fight and the Indian team was giving them all. Last over hits saw them reach 96. India Pak women`s highest total has been 101 but I thought that 97 in 120 balls was reachable. The ladies showed the grit to fight and pulled down wickets after 48 at such regular intervals that even though Pakistan was able to hit some boundaries, the required run rate reached 6 pretty soon. The never die fight saw India take 2 wickets in 2 balls to leave Pakistan at 77 with some 20 more runs needed in 4 overs before rains came down and Mr. Duckworth made his appearance. Pakistan was ahead by just 2 runs. If India would have done a bit better, they missed an easy stumping on the 3rd last ball otherwise with 1 more wicket down Pakistan would have been well short of the target. This team can fight, it has an aggression to defend its targets. Such was the excitement that the next day when my family asked me the result and I told them , they said, “ So they (Pakistan) won by D/L, not by their own ability”. 

Today in the England match, the batting collapsed once again with the team able to make up just 90. They fought back when you consider that England were blasting away at a run rate of 5 in the powerplay. The Blues made it up into the nail biter with wickets falling even in the late 80s. I am seeing the ladies in action for the 1st time but they are making things tough for the other teams even for small totals. 

This Indian teams reminds me of the men’s team when it used to score heavily depending on the start Sachin gave them, used to crumble under pressure/big match situations if the openers failed. Sometimes the ladies are playing just like that and sometimes they are playing like the team of Ganguly/ Dhoni era which says , “ It ain`t over until its over”. C`mon giving teams a run for for their money is not easy and not in 2 successive matches. Jhulan is the Venkatesh Prasad of the team who gives her all despite not being express. Anuja, Veda, Ekta, Harmanpreet seem to me like Kumble, Bhajji, Ashwin etc. Their batting reminds me of the 90s – suspectible to pressure and their fighting spirit reminds me of the 2002 Natwest final, the Kolkata test etc. Pick whichever mens` victory it comes to your mind. I have seen the public in the stadium get behind them on every run scored, every wicket taken cheering and egging them on.

This team might not win the world cup but with the playing style of 2 decades of men`s cricket, they would surely win a lot of hearts.