South Africa defeated India’s women’s cricket team by three wickets in the last match of the ICC Women’s World Cup. India was eliminated from the 2022 ICC Women‘s ODI Cricket World Cup with the last ball of the championship stage as South Africa won by three wickets. India beat Pakistan by 107 runs in the opening match of the 2022 Women’s World Cup at Bay Oval on Mount Maunganui to start the tournament with a bang.
India got off to a strong start, beating historical rival Pakistan early in the campaign. After three victories against Pakistan, West Indies and Bangladesh – and three losses against New Zealand, England and Zimbabwe – the blue-clothed women were fifth in the standings. India had four points in five matches and was fourth with an NRR ( Net Run Rate) of +0.456. Winning the last two games for the Indians would be enough to advance to the semi-finals.
If India could have defeated Bangladesh and continued building momentum to beat South Africa while keeping India’s NRR healthy, they would easily qualify for the Final 4. This would have automatically secured fourth place. In this case, both teams would have had eight points, and even if the West Indies won the remaining match against South Africa, they would not be able to advance to the next stage due to a meagre NRR of -0.885.
England beat the Indian side 2-1 in three home ODI games but recently lost to host Australia in the Women’s Ashes and are therefore vulnerable. In New Zealand, home of the World Cup, India has only won 40% of their games and last month, India lost the ODI series. The team has been close to the title twice, finishing second in Australia in 2005 and England in 2017. With two finals in the last two ICC tournaments, all eyes were on Team India’s ladies. India has six points in six games, but the team under Mitali Raj has the best net run record. Since 2017, India has lost all three bilateral overseas series.
Australia set up the biggest chase in ODI Women’s World Cup history when they beat India in a six-wicket victory. The Indian women’s cricket team decided to bat first and scored 277 runs thanks to half a century of experience from Mitali Raj, Smriti Mandhana and Shefali Verma. Smriti Mandhana and Mitali Raj led India’s scoring with 71 and 68.
Indian Women’s team has definitely made the country proud with their excellent performances in the tournament; it was the previous results because of which the fans were expecting more from the ladies. Indian Women’s team will now participate in the Women’s T20 Commonwealth Games, which starts in July, where they play their first games against the Australian Women’s team.
